KU Law Enforcement Training Center announces November graduates

HUTCHINSON -- Forty-one new law enforcement officers were honored at a Nov. 4 graduation ceremony at the University of Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center in southern Reno County after completing a 14-week basic training program.

The graduates represent 20 municipal, county and state law enforcement agencies from across Kansas. They received certificates for course completion and Kansas law enforcement certification from the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Commission, the state's law enforcement licensing authority.

The training course fulfills the 560-hour state mandate for law enforcement training. Classroom lectures and hands-on applications help train officers to solve the increasingly complex problems they face in the line of duty.

The center is a unit of the KU Continuing Education program. Established in 1968 as the central law enforcement training facility for the state, KLETC is located west of Yoder at a former naval air station.

KLETC directly trains most municipal, county and state law enforcement officers in Kansas and oversees and monitors the training of the remaining officers at seven authorized and certified academy programs operated by local law enforcement agencies and the Kansas Highway Patrol. In addition, KLETC maintains and monitors the employment and training histories of all Kansas law enforcement officers in the Central Registry, created in 1982 by the Kansas Legislature for that purpose.

About 450 officers are trained annually at the center, which offered continuing education and specialized training to more than 2,500 Kansas officers last year.

Funding for the training center is generated from court docket fees from municipal and state courts. No funds from the state's general revenue are used to operate the center.

Twelve graduates granted permission to release their names to the public. Those graduates, their positions and their law enforcement agency by county are:

BARTON COUNTY
Patrol Officer William Widiger Jr., Great Bend Police Department

FINNEY COUNTY
Deputy Hector Medina, Finney County Sheriff's Office
Patrol Officer E.J. Ochs, Garden City Police Department
Patrol Officer Robert Ojeda, Garden City Police Department
Deputy Lance Stadick, Finney County Sheriff's Office
Patrol Officer Angela Trent, Garden City Police Department

HARVEY COUNTY
Patrolman James M. Pfannenstiel, Newton Police Department

MITCHELL COUNTY
Patrol Officer Scott Emerson, Beloit Police Department

RAWLINS COUNTY
Officer Bryan Miller, Atwood Police Department

RILEY COUNTY
Patrol Officer Francisco Baclay Jr., Riley County Police Department

SALINE COUNTY
Officer Jeremy Ingrim, Salina Police Department
Patrolman Keri A. Lindstedt, Salina Police Department