LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Help is on the way for some of the law enforcement agencies in the area that are struggling to hire new officers. That's because the Southern Desert Regional Police Academy honored 18 new graduates during a ceremony at CSN's North Las Vegas campus on Thursday.
The new officers will be split between four different agencies. Ten of the recruits will work as police officers on the UNLV campus or with the City of Las Vegas as deputy city marshals while the remaining cadets will serve as corrections officers.
Vince Taormina will go to work as a Municipal Court Marshal.
"The perception of law enforcement in the past couple of years has been negative but we have the opportunity to change that tune," Taormina said. "We're here to help people."
Three of the recruits will work as officers with University Police Services at UNLV, including Michell Galvez, who tested out with the highest marks of anyone during the 22-week training program.
"This moment doesn't even feel real," Galvez said after the ceremony. "It's so nice to know that we finally did it. We're so excited to go out there and help the community as much as we can."
There's been an enhanced focus on law enforcement at the UNLV campus in the weeks following a December shooting that left three faculty members dead. That tragic event happened on Dec. 6 and Galvez said she remembers learning of the terrifying incident while in class at the academy.
"It was hard," she said. "It was very eye-opening, know that this is what we're getting into, but I think it just motivated us even more. We want to be out there. We want to do as much as we can to help our community."
Adam Garcia, Vice President of Public Safety Services and director of University Police at UNLV, told Channel 13 that the new officers will be welcomed warmly.
"The department has nearly 50 sworn officers right now but nine more are in the pipeline," he said.
There are nearly 20 open positions. Until the department can fill those open positions, extra security guards have been brought in. They will be in place when the spring semester begins on Tuesday.
"They're highly trained and properly equipped," Garcia said. "Our goal is always to stop those kinds of events that we witnessed [on Dec. 6]. But when we can't, we respond and we do our jobs. Those leaving the academy now, they have a lot of training behind them and now the real purpose for why they did this begins."
Garcia said anyone who is interested in pursuing a career with University Police Services can start the process by visiting the University Police Services website.
