APD’s 128th Cadet Class Graduates 51 New Officers

ALBUQUERQUE – The Albuquerque Police Department’s 128^th Cadet Class has graduated, with 51 new officers joining the department.

In recent years, Chief Medina has implemented new recruiting and retention tools to help bolster academy class numbers, and the department is seeing the effects.

“This is one of our largest cadet classes in recent years and that is a big accomplishment, and I think it says a lot about where we are as a department,” said Chief Harold Medina. “It is also a testament to the hard work our Recruiting Unit has done to grow our numbers, while finding quality candidates to join our agency.”

Of the 51 officers from the 128^th Cadet Class, 28 of them were pre-hires. The pre-hire program allows cadet candidates to get acclimated with the department while also being employed, so they don’t seek other opportunities as they await an upcoming Academy class.

The 128^th class was also the first class to take part in the Pre-academy. APD implemented the Pre-academy to help with attrition. Historically, cadet classes begin with high numbers and throughout the course of the class, several cadets will end up leaving the process due to a variety of reasons. The Pre-academy helps teach cadets 10-codes, and other specialized trainings that have posed issues once cadets are in the academy.

The 129^th Cadet Class began on January 29^th with a class of 55.

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