HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — Fifteen new recruits will be part of the first graduating class of Henry County’s new police academy in McDonough.
Officers with the Henry County Police Department built the obstacle course themselves to put recruits through the physical agility test.
Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes watched recruits go through the whole thing Wednesday, and she actually did it herself to see how it is.
If you can complete the entire thing in about 2 minutes and 6 seconds, you can be an officer here as long as you want to serve the community as well.
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Before the doors opened Monday, recruits had to drive nearly an hour each way up to Forsyth County to complete more than 800 hours of training.
“That’s gonna be six months of my life traveling back and forth, but also the benefit is that the instructors here – we’re Henry County. We’re gonna be training Henry county employees. We’re invested in their success. We want them to be successful," said Lt. David Lemacks, the police academy’s assistant director.
They start the day with physical training at 6:30 a.m.
Fernandes had to see what it was all about, so recruit Bryana Smith helped guide her through the course.
“It’s exciting to know that we are the first,” Smith said. She has a military background and always wanted to be an officer.
But recruit Darryl Marlow has a business, sales and management background. He left civilian life to become a sworn officer because he felt a new calling.
“For me, it just came down to, you know, not chasing money. It’s not the main goal. For me, the main goal was fulfillment and purpose,” Marlow said.
This is exactly the type of officer Henry County is looking for.
“Our main focus is that we wanna teach people to be police officers for a community we serve,” said Capt. Matthew Marlowe, the academy director.
If you’re interested and you think you can do this, just go to Links Mentioned on 2. They’re looking to fill 50 positions right away.
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