Each of them had their reasons. Some saw things growing up in the city that didn’t sit well with them.

“When I used to walk around, you used to see a lot of crack vials on the ground. That’s one thing that bothered me as a kid,” said NYPD recruit Jorge Bermudez.

“Where I came from and how I was treated. Coming home from school and stuff like that. There was a lot of unfairness going on in my neighborhood,” said NYPD recruit Eric Smith.
Police Academy: Making the Cut, Part 1

For others, it was fulfilling what they felt was a calling, wanting to try something different.

NYPD recruit Jaclyn Keane was a lawyer before joining the force.

“It’s not the office anymore. It’s a life and death job and you have to make sure you give 100 percent,” Keane said.

NYPD recruit George Ng is fresh out of college, where he studied finance. But it was his work as a police cadet that drew him in.

“Being a police cadet exposed me to the culture and the values of the department,” Ng said. “It not only instilled discipline in me but taught me what being a police officer entails.
Police Academy: Making the Cut, Part 1

Discipline was just one requirement for making it through six months of training, a time of transformation.

“You’re no longer a private citizen. You’re a police officer. Walking down the street in our uniform, people look at you,” Keane said.

“We’re held to a higher standard,” Smith said. “We have to make sure we stay professional and keep our head up, mouth closed. Do the right thing.”

Learning to do the right thing and hoping they remember what they’ve learned when it really counts is just part of the NYPD training experience instructors hope will extend beyond the academy.

“Where I came from and how I was treated. Coming home from school and stuff like that. There was a lot of unfairness going on in my neighborhood,” said NYPD recruit Eric Smith.
For others, it was fulfilling what they felt was a calling, wanting to try something different.
NYPD recruit Jaclyn Keane was a lawyer before joining the force.
“It’s not the office anymore. It’s a life and death job and you have to make sure you give 100 percent,” Keane said.
NYPD recruit George Ng is fresh out of college, where he studied finance. But it was his work as a police cadet that drew him in.
“Being a police cadet exposed me to the culture and the values of the department,” Ng said. “It not only instilled discipline in me but taught me what being a police officer entails.
Discipline was just one requirement for making it through six months of training, a time of transformation.
“You’re no longer a private citizen. You’re a police officer. Walking down the street in our uniform, people look at you,” Keane said.
“We’re held to a higher standard,” Smith said. “We have to make sure we stay professional and keep our head up, mouth closed. Do the right thing.”
Learning to do the right thing and hoping they remember what they’ve learned when it really counts is just part of the NYPD training experience instructors hope will extend beyond the academy.

“This is a fitting way to begin closing out a banner year for the NYPD–reducing crime another 10.4 percent and keeping us the nation’s safest big city,” Bloomberg said. “This is a project that has started and stalled through three previous city administrations and now it is getting built. The new academy will vastly improve the officer training that goes into making the NYPD the world’s greatest and most advanced police department by providing a state-of-the-art facility that can serve the department’s 21st century needs.”

“As the Police Department has grown, so have the complexities of our mission,” Kelly said. “The new Police Academy will serve as an instruction site for generations of police officers, traffic agents and school safety agents, and includes advanced technology to enhance the world-class training already being provided by the department. New York City police officers have driven crime down year after year. They deserve a Police Academy equal to their accomplishments and dedication.”

“Identifying an accessible and affordable 30-acre site [was only one] of the challenges and showed why previous administrations had such difficulty in getting this vital public safety investment off the ground,” Skyler said. “It also required working closely with local elected officials and community members to mitigate any impacts associated with a facility that serves our 50,000-person police department. By working with the community, we were able to develop a comprehensive plan and the project now has widespread support.”

“The world’s finest police department needs the world’s finest training facilities and DDC is proud to be working with our colleagues in public service and the best design and construction professionals to make this a training campus second to none,’ DDC Commissioner David J. Burney, FAIA, said. “This project will demonstrate our commitment to architectural excellence and will be one of the largest environmentally sustainable projects in New York City.”

“I am delighted to join Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly as we break ground today for a new, state-of-the-art Police Academy that will provide facilities for training police officers who have to deal with some of the most challenging and diverse situations in the greatest city in the world,” Marshall said. “Our police officers continue to be our first line of defense as we combat crime and subversive activities. Here in Queens, we are proud to be the new home of this academy. In addition to providing an increased police presence in this community, it will create construction and permanent jobs, while increasing local business activity and growth. We bid a fond welcome to all police officers to their new home!”

“I’d like to thank the NYPD for working with the community and the City Council to make this groundbreaking a reality,” Vallone said. “The new academy will lead to a better trained police force, which makes our police, and our communities, safer.”

The NYPD currently conducts training in numerous facilities scattered throughout the city. The main facility, the Police Academy, located on East 20th Street in Manhattan, was built in 1964, intended for a department half of the size of the current force, is an overcrowded and outdated facility, unable to meet the needs of today’s department. For example, the Firearms and Tactics Section is located at Rodman’s Neck in The Bronx, while the driver training field where the Emergency Vehicle Operations Course is taught is located at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn. The new facility will consolidate all NYPD training facilities at one location, creating a police training campus that can handle volume of recruits trained each year and meet the department’s highly advanced technological needs.

Once fully completed, the new Police Academy will occupy a 30-acre campus and be able to train approximately 2,000 recruits at any one time. It will feature instruction space for providing immersive, scenario based training for police personnel; support and administration buildings; a field house; indoor shooting ranges; a tactical village; a housing facility for visiting instructors; driver training fields; parking and a utility plant. The facilities will be designed for in-service training of officers, as well as for recruit training.

The project was designed with community concerns at the forefront of the planning process. The location is isolated from residential streets, reducing any impact the academy’s operations will have on the College Point community. The Department of Transportation and Department of Design and Construction worked closely with the community to identify traffic mitigation measures that will be put in place prior to the opening of the new academy. The location will have ample onsite parking for NYPD personnel, including a 3,000-car parking garage, to ensure those using the academy are not utilizing local parking spaces. The location is also well served by existing mass transportation options.

The total cost for the first phase of the new academy is estimated at $750 million. The project’s construction is a joint venture of Turner Construction Company and STV Incorporated. A cost estimate for the full academy project has not been finalized, as some components of the project’s design are ongoing.

The construction of the new academy is covered by one of the “Project Labor Agreements” announced by Mayor Bloomberg in November. The agreements, made with the Building and Construction Trades Council, will cover $5.3 billion in public projects comprising 32,000 construction jobs over the next four years. By easing the city’s bidding requirements and standardizing work rules, the city will save nearly $300 million on major public projects such as the new Police Academy. The savings will be used by the city to fund additional capital projects, allowing projects that may have been delayed due to funding shortfalls to be completed and help create more jobs. The Project Labor Agreements are expected to reduce construction costs at the Police Academy by approximately $30 million. The cost of the project was further reduced by locating the academy on land already owned by the city. The first phase of the academy project is expected to create 2,000 construction jobs.

The entire complex is being designed to achieve a LEED Silver rating. Some of the sustainable design measures under consideration include an energy-efficient central utility plant; green roofs and high albedo roofs; a high performance building envelope with solar shading and daylight enhancement; daylight harvesting in classrooms and offices; rainwater harvesting and reuse on site; bio-filtration of stormwater runoff; energy efficient lighting in all spaces, and automated building controls.

In 2007, a site selection committee led by Skyler reviewed eight possible locations for the new Police Academy and concluded that the College Point Auto Pound would be the location best suited to create a new facility that can meet the modern needs of the NYPD.

The New York City Police Department plans to cancel a 2010 police NYPD Police Academy Class because of budget cuts.

At a City Council public safety committee meeting Tuesday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that there will be no police academy next January to meet the city’s mandate that the department decrease their ranks by 1,000 officers.

That would bring the head count in the nation’s largest police department to 34,771. That’s down from an earlier projection of 37,838.   Over 3,000 fewer officer will be walking the beat on the New York City streets.

The Police Commissioner said the city will hire a class of 1,600 recruits in July 2010.Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch said that it was “time to stop cannibalizing the NYPD for the sake of the budget.”

The city could end up hiring more police officers through President Barack Obama‘s stimulus package, however that still remains to be seen.