Kids get police, fire and EMS training at NTC

From wsau.com: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” — It’s the big question we all face when we’re young, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Common answers are firefighter or police officer and middle and high school students from the Wausau Boys and Girls Club got the chance to live out that dream on Wednesday.

Kids got to try on a couple different hats for size at the Northcentral Technical College Safety Center of Excellence in Merrill as they went through the training exercises of police, fire, and EMS professionals.

“It’s really fun and it teaches us to be on our feet and be very active,” Tyler Jones, 14 said.

“They’re kind of at that point of ‘what should I do for my career when I get a little bit older?’ And, ‘where should I go to college?’ And things like that are starting to play into their minds, so this gives them an opportunity to see maybe this might be the avenue that they might want to venture into,” said the college’s Public Safety Executive Director Bert Nitzke.

Fourteen-year-old Asia Stalsberg said she’s now thinking of going into the behind the scenes work of public safety.

The hands-on experiences is, of course a great opportunity for all the kids involved, but it’s especially so for the young women.

“This has been a male-dominated field for a long time and seeing more girls come here today and seeing them apply at the fire departments is great because we do need that diversity and it’s just great seeing them out here having fun,” said SAFER Firefighter and EMT Emily Dobeck. “Sometimes it can be very intimidating seeing is how most of the tasks that we perform require strength, but sometimes it comes in handy when you’re smaller.”

Experiences like the one the Boys and Girls Club and NTC provided for the kids may inspire more women to join the field.

If you would like to try some of the college’s hands-on training classes or bring your group to some, you can visit their website here: http://www.ntc.edu/.

Counselors live what students will experience

From chippewa.com: “Counselors live what students will experience” — EAU CLAIRE – At McDonell Central High School in Chippewa Falls, it’s part of Jerry Van Dyke’s job to advise students on college and career selections and keep their high school experiences on track so they can reach their goals. He just got a little better at it.

Now Van Dyke will be able to tell his students from firsthand experience what they’re going to need in some of Chippewa Valley Technical College’s (CVTC’s) most popular programs.

“I’m here to learn about what young students in the program are experiencing right out of high school. It’s learning about it through practical experience,” Van Dyke said. He was one of dozens of high school counselors attending a recent conference at CVTC in which they were updated on requirements and expectations in the FireMedic, Paramedic/EMT, Criminal Justice-Law Enforcement and Paralegal programs.

However, the CVTC students who acted as instructors for the session did not just talk to the counselors about the credits required. They had them dressing in firefighter’s gear, holding a spraying fire hose, climbing ladders, tearing apart a wrecked car, checking vitals on a simulated patient, and many other activities that students in the programs face.

“I can advise kids so much better after today,” said Aaron Hass, the counselor at Mondovi High School. “I will have the practical experience to say, ‘I was in on that session, and you need (Advanced Placement) one and two.’”

Counselors from the area meet at CVTC once a year. “The purpose is to give them an overview of admission requirements and programs and update them on changes,” said Gayle Ostermann of Menomonie, an enrollment specialist at CVTC who works closely with the counselors. “This year was different because we decided to target one of our career clusters.” A survey of the counselors led to selection of the Law, Public Safety and Security cluster.

The CVTC staff planning the event decided to make it a hands-on experience, and to have students, who were so recently high school students themselves, conduct the sessions.

“The level of maturity of the students now in college was displayed to the counselors, who can talk about that with their high school students too,” Ostermann said.

Van Dyke sees the opportunity to take what he’s learned back to McDonell, where he can quickly dispel some of the misconceptions of students who think they don’t need this-or-that class to pursue a chosen career.

“One of the (Criminal Justice program) students pointed out the need for communication skills. That’s something 17-year-olds don’t realize,” Van Dyke said.

“The kids would be surprised by the amount of academics,” Hass said. “A lot of them want to skid through high school and think tech school will just be easy. (In Paramedic/EMT) they have to take anatomy and physiology.”

“In firefighting, they have to know physics, and do math right in the truck,” Van Dyke added.

“Math is so incredibly important. Kids need math skills and need to continue them because of the safety factor,” said Linda Mikunda, counselor at Barron High School.

Barb Van Doorn of Lake Holcombe High School had a different perspective. Academic requirements can be found in publications. “But we saw firsthand exactly what you need for FireMedic. You get a better idea of what students are going through. We are always so concerned about cognitive abilities, but with this program we learned what is physically needed, and what is emotionally needed.”

“We thought the sessions would energize them” said Ostermann. “There were a lot of smiles today.”

 

Nicolet College’s EMTs, firefighters excel on certification

From wxpr.org: “Nicolet College’s EMT’s, Firefighters at High Percentage” — Nicolet College is turning out a new batch of EMTs and state certified firefighters. 25 out of 26 students passed the most recent national certification for Emergency Management Technicians. 17 out of 18 passed the state’s practical firefighting exam. Director of public safety and campus security Jason Goeldner says a new curriculum helped bring in the high passing rates.

“We’ve incorporated an online platform, which is either called a blending or a hybrid learning style. And even though most of the learning takes place in the classroom, through lecture or hands on, we are able to stream online supporting materials – videos, exams, practical sessions in which the students can also learn outside of the classroom.”

Goeldner says high quality instructors are also to thank for the good scores. He says most students will use their certifications to volunteer.

“Many people in the Nicolet district are doing this on a part-time basis to support their communities. There are a small portion that do it full time, mostly on the medical side of it.”

The number of training hours required for EMTs at Nicolet went up significantly this year. Goeldner says he hopes to improve the passing rate even further in the future.

 

CVTC camp aims to get girls more involved in firefighting

From wqow.com: “CVTC camp aims to get girls more involved in firefighting” — By Aarik Woods – Girls are getting an inside look at a profession that is typically dominated by men. This week Chippewa Valley Technical College is hosting its first ever “Girls on Fire” camp. It’s a way to expose girls to the work required of firefighters and emergency medical service workers.

“Girls my age, they don’t think that they ever could be a firefighter,” said Redgy Bleskacek of Bloomer.

Sometimes, it takes a leap of faith to try new things. But that’s the idea behind the girls on fire camp; expose girls to something they may otherwise never try.

“When you think of firefighter, you think of male, so you think of a guy doing it. But now that I came to this camp, I feel like I can do it too,” explained Bleskacek.

CVTC says that women make up only four percent of firefighters nationwide. Local firefighters say the job can be demanding, which is why girls from 7th grade through high school are taking on ropes courses as part of the camp.

“You have to be strong. You’re going into places where nobody wants to go and you need to be able to get people out when they’re screaming your name. And a lot of women I guess probably don’t want to do that,” said Katie Hakes, Chippewa Fire District Firefighter.

But the job is more than just fighting fires, which is why the girls are also getting a first hand look at what else they could encounter.

“These girls need to realize that 80% of calls to the fire service are for EMS, so because of that they have to be trained. But we don’t really want to train them here, we just want to expose them and make them realize that EMS is a big piece of this, a very, very important part of it,” said Marcy Bruflat, CVTC Fire Training Program Director.

“It was a lot of hands on experience, and it’ll be a good learning experience because I think going in to EMS or firefighting would be a lot of fun,” said Madison Gilmartin.

Hakes added, “I don’t think it really matters whether you’re a man or a woman, but there’s definitely a necessity for us, because if your daughter or somebody was drowning, wouldn’t you want someone there right away?”

To give you an idea of the field locally, the Chippewa Fire District has 110 firefighters, and of that number, four are women. There are also several other women that are volunteers. Eau Claire has 92 firefighters, and just two are women. And in Chippewa Falls, the fire department is made of up 25 members, all of them men.

Firefighters gain valuable training experience

From wsaw.com: “Firefighters Gain Valuable Training Experience” — A car flips over and the driver can only be rescued by being extricated through the trunk.

 

A disabled man needs to be rescued from a burning building.

 

These are all frightening scenarios, but fortunately this is only a drill,and the victims are only plastic mannequins.

Saturday fire crews were able to practice for when these situations could become reality.

“We can accommodate police, fire, EMS, and a whole host of other public opportunities. You can’t get any other hands on training in this area.” says Fire Training director Doug Jennings.

You can’t learn how to fight fires and save lives just through reading a textbook, so that is why Northcentral Technical College hosted Advanced Skill Training Day. It is a way for rescue crews to be able to prepare for the worst.

“This facility up here is great for facilitating hands-on scenarios. Today they aren’t talking about cutting cars, they are actually cutting cars in difficult positions.” Jennings says.

The event was a great way for N.T.C to showcase their brand new training center. After the original one was destroyed, they have been able to get the latest technology.

“Our public safety center was demolished in the tornado a few years ago. We were able to rebuild this complex out here with the help of our president to a fantastic facility.” says Jennings.

Now they are able to provide firefighters a way to practice for the worst, all while learning from each other.

BTC firefighter and EMT student sees some action

From gazettextra.com: “Milton Fire/EMT intern sees tough, real-life training requirements” —   By Neil Johnson – MILTON — Milton Firefighter and EMT intern Heather Tollefson was tending to her daily marching orders on a quiet Friday morning.

Tollefson, 25, planned to write a report on an earlier emergency ambulance call, check the fire trucks’ firefighter air tanks and generators and head out for a set of pre-fire readiness checks at a half-dozen downtown Milton businesses.

Then, things got interesting.

At 10:27 a.m., the firehouse’s radios lit up with a report of a man stung by a hornet outside his home a few blocks away. The man was having an allergic reaction to the sting.

“I’ve gotta go,” Tollefson said, bounding off toward a fire department ambulance already idling in the firehouse garage.

Tollefson’s blond, braided ponytail bounced against her black Milton Fire Department T-shirt as she leapt into the back of the ambulance.

In a span of 10 seconds, Tollefson’s day had changed. Off she raced to an emergency.

For Tollefson, it was like any other day for a working intern at a small fire department. An intern can handle many kinds of tasks, some as mundane as cleaning a fire station restroom or filling oxygen tanks.

Other duties, such as writing reports or helping on calls as an ambulance or fire truck “ride along,” are crucial for a fire department trainee to gain hands-on work experience.

All the work gets logged in some way as part of a matrix of hundreds of training hours that a firefighter/emergency medical technician needs to complete as a full, on-call member of a fire department.

Tollefson already is certified as a base-level Emergency Medical Technician, known as an EMT-basic, but she is in the middle of a two-year program of coursework at Blackhawk Technical College in Janesville to earn certification as an advanced paramedic and a firefighter.

A former restaurant supervisor who has a young daughter and is engaged to be married, Tollefson, a rural Milton resident, said she has always dreamed of being a full-time firefighter/paramedic. She said her fiancé, Eric Sympson of Edgerton, pressed her to follow her dreams.

On Friday, it just happened to be Tollefson’s first call to a serious insect sting.

Lt. Aaron Reed, 24, a five-year veteran on the Milton Fire Department, said as an intern, Tollefson could get thrown into any emergency situation at any time.

“When you’re training for this work, you get thrown right into real life. It’s an eye-opener. It’s not you and your buddies sitting around in class or a college cafeteria.

“Today, Heather asked if she could ride along on ambulance calls, and I said sure,” Reed said. “So there you go. Bee sting.”

Although other area departments have internship programs, Tollefson is the Milton Fire Department’s first firefighter intern.

She has been at the 40-member volunteer fire department for about nine months during her schooling at Blackhawk Tech. She has about another semester and a half at BTC. She works 36 hours a week on call at the department.

The intern program is a new line this year in the fire department’s budget, which is funded jointly by taxpayers from the city of Milton and the town of Milton.

Milton Fire Chief Loren Lippincott said having Tollefson as an intern bolsters the ranks of Milton’s fire department and helps Tollefson meet her education and training requirements. The department’s association also reimburses some of Tellefson’s school costs.

“The internship program is a small expense to us as a department, but it’s great for both us and Heather,” Lippincott said. “She’s getting great experience that she needs to advance her career here at Milton or another department. And it’s at less of cost to us than a part-time member.”

According to department records, about 20 percent of the Milton Fire Department’s 40 or so permanent, on-call firefighter/EMTs have been on the department two years or less. And, Reed said, more than half of the department’s members are under 35.

Many, he said, work full-time jobs outside the department—some as private EMTs. Others work in fields unrelated to public safety.

Regardless of education or experiences, the Milton Fire Department requires every firefighter to have at least 100 hours of training to meet department criteria, which range from fire response to water and ice rescue on Lake Koshkonong.

If firefighters also are EMTs—and most, such as Tollefson, are—the department requires those members-in-training to gather ambulance emergency skills along with training hours before they can graduate beyond “ridealong” status.

For instance, Lippincott said, on Tollefson’s hornet-sting call, she earned EMT training credits and department credit for assisting the man stung and also communicating with staff at Mercy Hospital and Trauma Center in Janesville, where the man was transported for treatment.

New members including interns have tough tests to get through, and they do it in real time, Reed said.

“Everybody, whether they’re a chief or someone in training, has to go to their first fire sometime. Just because you’re an intern doesn’t mean you sit in the firehouse and wait until you’ve got experience. Heather understands she’s like anybody else here. She’s part of the department. She’s got to be ready to go whenever,” he said.

Although Milton is a fairly small city, it and its surrounding area see the fourth-highest fire-emergency call volume in Rock County.

The city also has a soon-to-be finished four-lane bypass and four manufacturers whose work involves production with natural gas, plastics and ethanol, which Reed called “targeted production facilities” with potentially volatile substances that require dozens more hours a year of special training.

“Milton is changing a lot from a public-safety perspective. It’s not as sleepy as you’d think. Everything about it is dynamic,” Reed said.

Tollefson referred to the third call of her shift, the one involving the man with the hornet sting, as “laid back, but a pretty good call.”

She would be busy for rest of her day catching up on reports, cleaning up and checking in the ambulance the department used on the hornet sting call, and doing pre-fire checks at businesses. That is, if she didn’t have to go out on another call.

“I’m as happy as I could be,” Tollefson said. “I love this work.”

Local firefighters learn dangers of hybrid vehicles

From weau.com: “Local firefighters learn dangers of hybrid vehicles when responding to crashes”  — You’ve probably seen more hybrid vehicles and even hybrid buses zipping around town lately.

And that means local firefighters are training on how the vehicles operate in case there’s a crash.

Thursday morning, there were shiny new green-friendly cars, lined up and ready for a spin.

But the vehicles weren’t at a car dealership; they were at Eau Claire Fire Station #9.

“With hybrid vehicles they have new technology which creates different issues for us,” said Eau Claire Fire and Rescue Lt. Bob Pratt.

Lt. Pratt showed firefighters and students from CVTC the ins and outs of the rides.

“Where the high voltage batteries are located, the high voltage cables, how they run within the motor itself, where the airbag systems are,” Lt. Pratt said.

Two handicapped-accessible vehicles, four hybrid cars and one hybrid city bus were all on loan this week for the training.

Although the cars cut down on gas, they do provide new dangers to firefighters responding to an emergency.

One of those dangers is how firefighters cut out a person trapped in a vehicle.

Lt. Pratt said the orange colored cables in hybrid engines have high voltage going through them.

“And if we were to cut those cables, there’s potential that you’re going to have a high voltage displacement. Which means you could potentially be electrocuted,” Lt. Pratt said.

He said hands-on experience for the firefighters means less fear when they respond to a crash.

“The more that they’re out there, the more there’s potential to be involved in accidents and that’s why we’re doing the training,” Lt. Pratt said.

The two handicap-accessible vehicles came from A and J Mobility, the hybrid cars came from Markquart Motors, Eau Claire Ford and Ken Vance Motors.

The hybrid bus came from Eau Claire Transit.

View video from weau.com

NTC students learn from Weston fire

From wausaudailyherald.com: “NTC students learn from Weston fire” — WESTON — A house in Weston burned to the ground March 16 in front of a group of firefighters — only this time, they meant for that to happen.

Fire science students and instructors from Northcentral Technical College and firefighters from several local fire departments gathered at a house on 5000 block of Ross Avenue in Weston to implement a controlled burn as practice for 32 NTC students.

The event was the first live fire exercise for Jackie Wagner, 31, a fire science student at NTC. She said the experience went more quickly and more smoothly than she was expecting.

“The instructors know what they’re doing and are helping us through it,” she said. “I figured I would be scared, and I wasn’t scared at all. It’s an adrenaline rush.”

Instructors, with the help of local firefighters, set eight small fires inside the house before they burned down the structure. With each fire, four students and two firefighters practiced attacking the fire, ventilating the house, clearing the smoke with water and fans, and finally putting out the fire.

The entire exercise ran for about six hours, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., as dozens of bystanders and neighbors stopped to watch the scene and take some photos and videos.

Adam Grahn, 29, also an NTC fire science student, had been through a live fire exercise several years ago, but he said he still found the experience helpful for building confidence while being in a burning and smoky building.

“Every burn is a little bit different, so you always learn something new,” he said.

NTC fire science instructor Doug Jennings said the school does between four and six live fire exercises a year. The owner of the house donates it to the school and pays for inspection fees and debris removal after the house has been burned, so it’s a good deal for NTC, Jennings said.

“It’s a win-win situation for the owner and the school,” he said. “We get a place to practice, and the owner doesn’t have to pay demolition costs.”

Jennings said NTC will run another fire exercise in Merrill in April.

Hands on learning for future firefighters

From wsaw.com: “Hands on learning for future firefighters” — Thirty-three students from Northcentral Technical College got a feel for what a real house fire is like during a live fire exercise in Weston. Northcentral Technical College partnered with local fire departments to provide an experience for students instructors say can’t be simulated.

“Today’s firemen and firewomen are coming out of our schools, a lot of them don’t have any live burn experience. Here we’re able to come outside the building, go into a real house and have students actually hear what dry wall sounds like when it’s burning, what it sounds like when ceilings are collapsing, they get the full effect in a house,” NTC Director of Fire and EMS Training Doug Jennings told NewsChannel 7.

It only took five hours and seven different exercises for the house to burn to the ground. Now that it’s gone, the property will be given back to the family who donated the house to the college.

New Fire and Paramedic Training Center will benefit the community

From weau.com: “CVTC’s new Fire and Paramedic Training Center will benefit the community” — All of our area Fire and Police Departments along with volunteer Firefighters in smaller towns will soon have access to a brand new training facility.

It’s part of a new Fire and Paramedic Training Center at Chippewa Valley Technical College.

CVTC calls the new center a “state of the art” facility. When it’s finished, it’ll include a live burn area; a preparation and observation area; storage for emergency service vehicles; and a physical fitness training area for the fire, paramedic and law enforcement students.

“We really emphasize the applied learning, the hands-on learning. We want to replicate real life situations as much as possible so when they do happen students and the existing workers will have that experience and more confidence,” said the President of CVTC Bruce Barker.

“The hands-on training is very, very important. It allows us to have that firefighter to go from a new firefighter to a productive firefighter a lot quicker,” said Deputy Chief of the Eau Claire Fire Rescue, Scott Burkart.

Burkart said a fair share of new firefighters that are hired, have attended CVTC. And the more experience they have right away, the more beneficial it is to the community the department serves.

“It’s less ‘on the job’ type of training that we have to do. That is a cost savings to us also,” said Burkart.

The Eau Claire Fire Department also has a mutual aid agreement with a lot of surrounding fire departments.

Burnkart said knowing the training came from one institution, will help everyone to mesh much better, and react quicker.

“Everyone will benefit from it, not only the firefighters, but also the communities too, because it’s a cost effective way to get that experience and training that we can’t receive any other place,” said Burkart.

“Our police and fire deal with life-threatening situation all the time, so providing them better training; they will be more aped to have confidence to perform better in those situations. It may save your life or my life someday,” said Barker.

The CVTC foundation and L.E. Philips Family Foundation came up with the money for the facility. The construction is expected to start toward the end of May and be ready for the students this Fall.

 

Safety is priority in fire fighter training

From firefightingnews.com: “Firefighter Escapes From Being Buried By Collapsed Ceiling” — When a ceiling of a burning Chippewa County town of Lafayette duplex collapsed Tuesday, pinning him to the floor, firefighter John Andersen’s thoughts flashed to a similar fire earlier this month in which an Abbotsford firefighter died.

Once I realized what happened, it was the first thing that went through my mind, Andersen said Wednesday of the March 4 fire at the Abby Theatre in which a roof collapsed, killing firefighter Jamison Kampmeyer. Three other firefighters were injured in the blaze.”But I could see daylight and the door,” Andersen said. “There was no smoke in the room. It wasn’t like Abbotsford — I wasn’t deep inside a building.”Andersen, 60, is chief of inspection for the Chippewa Fire District, for which he has worked for 35 years. During that time, Andersen estimates he has battled between 200 and 300 fires.

Andersen was at home Tuesday when he received a call at 5:31 p.m. that the duplex at 5672 165th St. was burning. He immediately drove the five miles to the scene of the blaze, north of Highway J near Lake Wissota, just east of Chippewa Falls.

”We carry our turnout gear with us, but not our air packs,” said Andersen, who was the entry officer for the crew entering the north end of the burning home. “We (firefighters) waited for our engines to arrive.”Firefighters used a garage to access the fire, which was mostly in the attic. Andersen was making his way through the living room when the ceiling above him suddenly collapsed.

“It just let loose and fell on my head,” Andersen said. “I went straight down. I got buried from the sheetrock and 18 inches of insulation. One of the guys said I looked like I was tarred and feathered.”

Chippewa Fire District Chief Kent Hulett called for assistance for Andersen. Several firefighters ran to his aid and pulled him from the building.

Andersen, who was wearing his helmet, estimates the weight of the fallen ceiling was 100 pounds.

“I couldn’t move it by myself,” Andersen said. “They had to pull me out of there.”

Marcy Bruflat, a fire training instructor with Chippewa Valley Technical College, said she and other instructors make safety a priority when instructing firefighters. She is unsure whether national firefighting safety organizations will recommend changes to battling blazes based on the Abbotsford fire and others in which roofs have collapsed.

“Will training change? No, at least not immediately,” she said.

However, Bruflat is optimistic firefighters will learn from those fires.

“It is such a reality check; maybe people will be hypervigilant about safety,” she said.

But sometimes even the best prevention training can’t stave off accidents, Bruflat said.

“Sometimes you just don’t see something is going to hit you, even with situational awareness,” she said.

Andersen said he had no idea the ceiling would collapse on him.

“There was no cracking, there was no place where seams were showing up,” he said. “There was no indication of anything.”

The fire apparently started in a lower level of the duplex, where several electronic devices were plugged in.

According to the Chippewa Fire District, occupant Chris Snyder was alerted to the fire by smoke detectors. She said the fire was entering the home through an outside window.

All occupants escaped uninjured. The cause of the fire remains unknown, but it is not being treated as suspicious.

Electric cars pose new hazards for firefighters

From lacrossetribune.com: “Electric cars pose new hazards for firefighters” —  Firefighters are undergoing training for the next generation of emergencies: electric car crashes. The vehicles present special hazards, and they’re only going to become more prevalent on area roadways, experts say.

“There’s a lot more to worry about (with electric vehicles) — it’s not just a gas fire or jagged metal anymore,” said Peter Silva, education director of Fire Service Education and Training at Wisconsin Technical College System. “Now there’s high-voltage electricity.”

The La Crosse Fire Department is teaching its staff how to respond to electronic vehicle emergencies at an upcoming training session. And three fire fighters attended electric-car training over the weekend at Volk Field Air National Guard Base in Camp Douglas. The course is part of NFPA’s national Electric Vehicle Safety Training Project, funded by a $4.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Emergency responders learned the myths and truths of electric cars. One of the biggest myths, Silva said, is that if the car is submerged in water, it will send an electric shock. Not true.

Responders also learned to use extra care with the Jaws of Life, because several wires run throughout the interior of the car, each coated by a bright orange covering.

Read more from lacrossetribune.com

Training exercise teaches students how to prepare for fire

From wsaw.com: “Training exercise teaches students how to prepare for a fire” — 

Firefighters spent six hours putting out flames in Weston Saturday.

It wasn’t a real house fire, but a controlled training exercise to teach students about real life scenarios.

Northcentral Technical College students training to be firefighters were gearing-up to put out a house fire, so when an emergency call comes in they are prepared to put out the blaze.

Professional firefighters first walked students through a home off Weston Avenue, to get a sense of the confined areas where they would be training. Then they had to ignite a live fire, wait for the smoke to accumulate and rise before they can extinguish the flames.

Firefighters said there are many things they have to consider in order to keep everyone safe.

“Be careful with the ceiling possibly coming down. You know it always goes through your head if there’s a basement underneath you that there’s no fire underneath you because you don’t want to be falling through the floor either,” said Weston Lt. Evan McVain.

Certain areas in the house were set on fire at different times throughout the exercise.

An instructor said as the smoke rises it gets so thick that it’s impossible to walk through, so that’s why firefighters always tell you to crawl.

To view video from wsaw.com

WCTC celebrates new Protective Services Center

From the Waukesha Patch: “Waukesha County Technical College Celebrates New Protective Services Center” — A daycare center converted into an elite training ground for area criminal justice students and law enforcement was unveiled Tuesday afternoon at Waukesha County Technical College.

WCTC already has an outstanding program that graduates high caliber police officer recruits, said Brian Dorow, associate dean of the Department of Criminal Justice at the college.

“We are only here today to build on that,” Dorow said in the opening ceremony.

The approximately 20,000-square-foot facility that will house the WCTC Protective Services Center will have classes beginning in about two weeks, Dorow said, and includes a chance to increase training. The building has rooms for holistic scenario based training, including: command center operations, crime scene analysis, and tactical situations.

“Our students are amazing. They are getting jobs at record rates,” Dorow said. “They are respected. Our police chiefs are coming to hire our recruits at a record rates.

“We also want to provide them with the best, up-to-date training possible to go into the community to be our police officers, our protectors, our public servants. With the addition of this new training center, we will be able to elevate our level of training.”

Read more from the Waukesha Patch