Quinsigamond Community College Puts Out an All-Points Bulletin About its New Police Academy

WORCESTER, MA—June 11, 2018— Quinsigamond Community College will be launching a Reserve/Intermittent Recruit Officer Course this fall at its main campus. QCC is the only Massachusetts community college that is running its own police academy. The entry-level training program is geared for those interested in becoming a part-time reserve or intermittent police officer. Graduates of the program are eligible to be hired by municipal police in a part-time reserve/intermittent capacity and will exercise police powers as a police officer.

Information sessions are being held this summer on Monday, June 18 from 9:00 a.m. – 11 a.m. and Monday, July 23, from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. at QCC’s main campus (670 West Boylston Street Worcester). Visitors should go to the Welcome Center located in the Harrington Learning Center.

 Police academies such as QCC’s must be certified through the Municipal Police Training Committee (MPTC) and students must be sponsored by a municipal or campus police chief, a sheriff, or campus/hospital security director in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

 QCC’s Police Chief Kevin Ritacco will sponsor anyone interested in applying to the academy, as long as they are vetted and pass a Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) and Sex Offender Registry Information.

“Students normally would have to obtain a sponsorship themselves; however, Chief Ritacco wanted to give as many students as possible this opportunity,” said QCC Sergeant Joseph P. Cecchi. 

QCC’s Police Academy consists of a minimum 372.5 hours of instruction per the MPTC Basic Recruit Curriculum for Reserve/Intermittent Officers. The academy can accept up to 50 students who are deemed eligible.

Any student accepted into the academy must attend a mandatory orientation on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Classes will run Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m. and every other Saturday from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. The program is expected to end May 10, 2019.

Those applicants who have an associate or bachelor degree in a major of Criminal Justice, combined with the Reserve Intermittent Police Academy, will be eligible to be hired as a full-time police officer at a majority of college police departments in Massachusetts.

“Most likely a college police department will eventually require that officer to attend the next available full-time police academy,” Sergeant Cecchi added.

To request an application packet or for additional information, contact QCC’s Center for Workforce Development & Continuing Education at cce [at] qcc.mass.edu or call 508.751.7900.

For more information, contact Josh Martin, Director of Institutional Communications at 508.854.7513 or jmartin [at] qcc.mass.edu