By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The Tucker County Sheriff’s Department will be hosting an upcoming Law Enforcement Training in February at Canaan Valley State Park Lodge for Law Enforcement personnel across the State, according to Tucker County Sheriff Jake Kopec.
“We are getting ahead of the power curve as far as training for police officers,” Kopec said.
Kopec said that each year, by July 1, a standard law enforcement officer has to complete 16 hours of mandatory training, two pistol qualification and one low light qualification in order to maintain their law enforcement certification. However, the majority of these trainings and one of the Police Academies are in Charleston, according to Kopec.
“A lot of times these trainings are in Charleston,” Kopec said. “A lot of stuff revolves around Charleston and that makes for a hard day.”
Besides the long days and weariness long travel can cause, Kopec said that the Charleston trainings come at an added cost to the County. Each three day training in Charleston, per officer, adds the cost of lodging, food and mileage for the County, Kopec said.
Kopec said he thought outside of the box and thought about all the other trainings and events that have been coming to the County. His Department wanted to offer a training for Departments in neighboring communities and Counties that may not want to have to drive to Charleston and stay for three days.
“All the great things that are coming to Tucker County,” Kopec said. “We could do that, too.”
An Instructor has already been procured for the training, Kopec said and Canaan Valley Lodge has offered the space for free to the Sheriff’s Department for the 16 hour training. Kopec said that he spoke to the Lodge and they were very supportive of what he and his Department were putting together.
“What that will do is attract Police Agencies, Sheriff’s Departments, Pds throughout the whole state to Tucker County,” Kopec said. “They’ll come, they’ll stay for three days because the supervisory has an additional 8 hours.”
The cost per class will be $50, Kopec said, which is far below the market average cost for similar trainings. Kopec said the average cost of similar classes runs $200, a day.
“Which is unbelievably cheap,” Kopec said. “Usually these classes, they are $200, a day.”
The event is anticipated to bring money into the County community through the influx of visitors to the area. As well as anticipated to bring revenue to the County, including adding to the County’s 2% fee that supports EMS and the Hotel/Motel Tax, according to Tucker County Commission President Mike Rosenau.
“It saves the Sheriff’s Office and the County money, as well, and brings more funds into the community,” Kopec said.
