Norwich ― Fourteen officers graduated during the Law Enforcement Council Eastern CT Police Academy’s first graduation ceremony at Kelly Middle School in Norwich on Wednesday. The first class of officers from the academy’s inaugural class came from from nine departments.

The graduates are:

East Lyme Police: Ryan P. Kelly, XioChen Xu; Town of Groton: Kyle A. Cipriano; Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Police: Zachary C. Capron; David P. Oellerich; Montville Police Department: Tyler S. Hughes, Bayron J. Mora Serna; Newington Police: Michael Moscicki; Norwich Police: Michael P. Bates, Ryan J. Dunn, Cody W. Nichols; Plainfield Police: Amanda J. Waufle; Waterford Police: Andrew F. Reed; Willimantic Police: Luke R. Guilmette.

The non-profit Law Enforcement Council of Connecticut received certification from the Police Officer Standards and Training Council in September of 2022 to open a satellite academy at the LEC’s offices at 11 Stott Avenue in Norwich and started classes this January.

Law Enforcement Council Executive Director Wilfred “Bill” Blanchette III, a retired state police master sergeant, said the idea behind opening a new satellite academy was to provide more academy space to ensure local departments get their new hires trained on a timely basis.

Previously when a local police department hired a new police recruit, the individual was typically sent to the state police academy in Meriden. Recruits used to sleep at the academy on weekdays for the six months of training. The Meriden academy, which went remote during the pandemic, now has commuter classes in which recruits drive home each day.

Now classwork is done at the LEC office and hands-on parts of the training, such as defensive tactics, will be done at the Army National Guard Armory in Norwich. Firearms training takes place at any one of the several facilities in eastern Connecticut, including Waterford and Groton. The majority of the certified instructors come from eastern Connecticut and serve as deans, or departments heads, in different areas of study.