College of the Desert President Joel Kinnamon is finally speaking out about the report filed back in June.

 

The report slammed COD's Public Safety Academy, questioning it's effectiveness and the caliber of officers graduating from it's program.

 

"If there were any questions in anybody's minds out there I believe we're demonstrating through our response that our academy, that the outcomes for our students are at a high quality," said College of the Desert President Joel Kinnamon.

 

Kinnamon says hundreds of graduates from COD's Public Safety Academy have been hired in the Coachella Valley. 

 

Right now complete training to become a peace officer isn't available at COD. Instead students have to finish the final phase of the course 120 miles away at the Ben Clark Training Facility in Moreno Valley.

 

In California cadets must complete 3 modules of Basic Peace Officer Training to become a sworn officer. COD  offers 2 of them. The final training module, now offered in Moreno Valley--was offered at COD until 2010--a decision Sheriff Stan Sniff says was made by College of the Desert.

 

"We certainly support local training areas that help us supplement our law enforcement there and across Riverside County but the lion share of our work comes from our full-time academy that we do out of Ben Clark Training Center," Riverside County Sheriff Stan Sniff said.

 

Sheriff Sniff says programs like the one at College of the Desert are good supplementary programs, but the bulk of new hires across the state come from full-time academies.

 

Representatives from College of the Desert say they they're working to resolve any issues as soon as possible.