HCC's New Partnership With Howard County Police Academy

By Susan Kim, STAFF WRITER



Howard Community College (HCC) and the Howard County Police Academy have announced a new partnership through which police recruits can earn an associate's degree while training to become officers.

The new program - set into motion by a change in county legislation - lifts a previous legal requirement that recruits have a two-year degree before entering the police academy.

The new coursework will take place at the training academy facility, explained Howard County police spokesperson Sherry Llewellyn. "Some HCC faculty will travel to the academy to teach," she said.

HCC staff members will teach three courses: Law Enforcement in the Community, Introduction to Criminal Justice and Principles of Evidence and Procedure.

Howard and Montgomery were the only two Maryland counties that required recruits to have an associate's degree prior to entering the police academy.



Opening Doors

Llewellyn said she believes the new arrangement will boost recruitment efforts. Staffing is one of the department's biggest internal concerns, with more than 10 people expected to retire in April. The department has 402 sworn officers.

"This will allow us to open our doors to even more people who will make great officers," she said. The first police academy session begins in July.

In developing the partnership, HCC created a police science degree program. Recruits will earn 60 college credits during police training through weekend classes and additional classroom time. The amount of classroom time that recruits would spend in the academy will be extended from 29 to 30 weeks.

More information will be added to some of the classes taught in the academy, and recruits will take 4-1/2 hours of coursework each Saturday for 23 weeks to fulfill the general education requirements. At the end of the 30 weeks of academy classroom time, recruits without degrees would take an additional 3-1/2 weeks of general education classes Monday through Friday.



Rapid Development

Development for the program began when Howard County Police Chief William McMahon approached HCC about how an education program could potentially boost recruitment, said Ron Roberson, HCC's vice president of academic affairs.

"He contacted me at the college to initiate some discussions about the possibility of setting up such a program," said Roberson. "I met with him, and with our criminal justice coordinator. We looked at a similar program that Frederick Community College is doing. We started working on it in the summer and it was done, really, this spring. They made it happen pretty fast."

The model for the partnership is one in which an institution of higher education develops articulations with non-degree granting institutions, said Roberson. While HCC has no partnership exactly like the police academy one, HCC does have a program called Healthcare for the Professional designed to help paramedics, cardiovascular technicians and massage therapists advance their education.

Given the complexity of the model - and that legislative change was required - the program was developed with surprising speed, said Roberson. "Educational institutions can move very, very slowly," he said, "but not this time."



Maintaining a Strong Police Force

The county's police academy used to be located on the HCC campus, recalled Patrick O'Guinn, Sr., coordinator of HCC's criminal justice program.

"This new partnership actually forges a greater relationship with the college, the kind we had in the past when the academy was located on the campus," he said.

HCC is now able to share some of its best resources with police recruits, said O'Guinn. "This gives the strength of the college to the program," he said. "It's beneficial to the college, the police department and the community in the long run."

O'Guinn has always been concerned about supporting a very strong police force that helps maintain the quality of life in Howard County. "I previously worked in Santa Clara County in Silicon Valley which has many of the same attributes as Howard County," he said. "We're really hoping this will double the pool of applicants."



Criminal Justice Offerings Expanding

HCC has been expanding its criminal justice offerings in other ways as well. A computer forensics program - developed jointly by HCC's criminal justice and computer technology staff - has been growing in popularity since it began less than three years ago.

"We were looking at emerging technology and only one or two colleges in the nation offered computer forensics at that time," said Vinitha Nithianandam, a professor of computer support technology at HCC.

O'Guinn and Nithianandam are co-directors of HCC's computer forensics program. "We created four courses," she said. "All classes have lab components. It's an interesting field."

Nithianandam said she believes HCC and the police academy will have a strong partnership, and that students who take computer forensics will now have a better opportunity to become potential police recruits.