Fairmont State’s new police chief has great interest in new police academy

FAIRMONT, W.Va. — Fairmont State College has employed an executive-level police officer with about 30 years of expertise to command a brand new police academy and function the chief of the varsity’s police drive.

Jeff McCormick spent about eight years in Georgia working for native regulation enforcement businesses then took a job with the FBI the place he served 23 years at a number of area places of work and government management positions earlier than retiring in 2020.

“Then I went again to work for the FBI in Clarksburg in a non-sworn capability and that’s after I heard Fairmont State, along with the police academy, had been in search of a chief and I couldn’t go that up,” McCormick lately advised WAJR Information.

McCormick has an intensive background in coaching. With the FBI he educated new brokers in management and the usage of firearms and spent three years because the chief of the FBI Nationwide Academy.

He stated the brand new police academy coming to Fairmont State is what drew him.

“That educational part is what actually made this place engaging, as a result of Fairmont State is poised to change into solely the second police coaching academy within the state of West Virginia which I believe is fairly big,” McCormick stated.

McCormick believes the function, together with the tutorial place, will present him with a novel alternative to work as a primary responder and an instance for future regulation enforcement officers. Having a constant presence within the classroom and within the public will alter some potential perceptions developed during the last two years.

“So, after we see these uncommon occurrences being replayed over-and-over within the media it drives this false narrative that every one cops are racist and all cops are brutal,” McCormick stated. “So, in consequence many individuals are frightened of the police for causes that aren’t based mostly in precise reality.”

The brand new Fairmont State College Police Academy is anticipated to launch subsequent January. McCormick has been in touch with regulation enforcement professionals throughout the nation to place the brand new program collectively.

“I really consider this can be revolutionary, not just for West Virginia regulation enforcement, however the hope is beginning at Fairmont State we will drive a story on police coaching and the way we will handle the realities of regulation enforcement in the US at the moment,” he stated.

This system is constructed from the bottom up with nationwide experience, however McCormick is getting the native enter to construction this system to satisfy the wants of West Virginia.

“Prosecuting attorneys, protection attorneys, sheriffs, chiefs of police, representatives from metropolis authorities and the NAACP, from campus defective and the neighborhood at-large,” McCormick stated.