Two New University Police Officers Graduate from Academy

SUNY Plattsburgh welcomed two new police officers into its force with the Zone 9 Police Academy graduation held Jan. 26 in City Hall.

Carter Frechette of Plattsburgh and a member of the Class of 2016, and Rachael Youngers of Angola, N.Y., successfully completed the nearly 700 hours of instruction, including penal, criminal procedure, constitutional, vehicle and traffic, and mental health law, physical agility, ethics, fire arms and range training and more. In addition, they completed 160 hours of field training under a certified field training officer, according to University Police Chief Jerry Lottie. 

“Our officers go through the exact same training as Plattsburgh City police officers or officers from local municipalities do,” Lottie said.

Officers are hired from the University Police Civil Service test list, sworn in at a small ceremony on campus and then sent to the police academy in Plattsburgh for basic training, Lottie said. This class of officers began academy training Aug. 14, 2017.

“Once the academy training is complete, after graduation, they remain in field training for about eight weeks.” Together with the four weeks they had in the academy, officers receive a total of 12 weeks of field training “to learn the particulars of the job and the campus.”

Frechette and Youngers were among a class of 12, with fellow officers hailing from police departments in Lake Placid, Ticonderoga, Tupper Lake, Inlet in the Adirondacks, the City of Plattsburgh and the Essex County Sheriff’s Department.

With the addition of the two new University Police officers, SUNY Plattsburgh’s ranks number 11 not including supervisory staff, Lottie said.

“Rachael and Carter were hired in anticipation of openings due to pending retirements,” he said. “We are pleased to have individuals of this caliber joining University Police. I am confident that they will serve our campus with distinction and be an asset to the University Police department.”