A familiar course has returned to the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology with a revamped curriculum backed by Canada’s police.
RCMP officially endorsed NVIT’s Law Enforcement Preparation Program (LEPP), which prepares students for the rigors of police training at the RCMP Academy, Depot Division in Regina.
Also known as the Aboriginal Cadet Program, LEPP wasn’t offered last year as it underwent changes that have led to it being supported by the Mounties.
Associate dean Dr. Aruna Gore said NVIT is working in collaboration with the RCMP Academy in Regina and the curriculum has been altered to mimic the Aboriginal Cadet Development Program (ACDP) developed by the RCMP and held at Assiniboine College in Manitoba.
More courses were added to the previous NVIT program that were equivalent to the ACDP, but the program is still based on the original NVIT program, Amanda Tourand, assistant to the NVIT deans said.
The RCMP essentially wanted NVIT to focus more on investigations and physical fitness for the program.
Among the changes are new courses such as Investigational Techniques and Managing Police Function.
The LEPP students will now be required to work out for one and a half hours per day from 8:30 to 10 a.m. in order to meet the physical aptitude tests of the RCMP Academy. In the past, students only needed a total of three hours of monitored workouts per week.
They will also have to complete an obstacle course once every month.
There won’t be shoe shining or marching in the program as there are at the RCMP Academy, but the program will mimic the academy’s schedule, Gore said.
Students will generally be in class from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., which isn’t typical of most university programs, but more common of a day in the life of a cadet.
About four Merritt RCMP officers will teach portions of the program, including Const. Tracy Dunsmore, who taught in the previous police training program.
Dunsmore said students in this program also take a trip to Regina to visit the RCMP Academy.
There is a focus on aboriginal policing, but the program is open to all people, Dunsmore told the Herald.
Essentially, the program prepares students to be RCMP cadets.
“It just gives you an edge,” Gore said.
Dunsmore said this program gives students who are interested in police work a better understanding of what’s expected of them.
She also said the program comes in handy for other types of policing as well, including security work and conservation.
Students will gain the skills and knowledge needed to pass various entrance requirements for law enforcement, such as the RCMP’s police aptitude test.
“It teaches you kind of everything you need to know to get into the RCMP or to get into the law enforcement field,” NVIT president Ken Tourand said.
Students will come away with their LEPP certificate at the end of it all.
NVIT is one of only two institutions nationally and the only one in Western Canada to offer this course.
The program began Sept. 2, coinciding with recent B.C. RCMP budget cuts to organized crime and homicide units for the 2014-15 budget year.
A total of $2.8 million is being cut from the anti-gang Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, eliminating 12 jobs, and $1.4 million to the Major Crimes program, cutting 13 full-time investigators.
Dunsmore said those cuts are in specialized areas and students of the LEPP learn investigative techniques used by general duty officers.
