LCPD Graduates 9 from Police Service Aide Academy
The Las Cruces Police Department graduated its first class of Police Service Aides during an informal ceremony held Friday afternoon.
The nine cadets who graduated the PSA academy are Owen Gould, Dakota Harless, Dalton Kinney, Viridiana Porras, Cristal Ramirez, Luisa Sanchez, Samuel Sapien, David Tabullo II and Alyssa Watkins.
Six of the nine graduates will now become Police Service Aids and will begin working with LCPD on Monday, June 24. The remaining three cadets all graduated in good standing and will have their names placed on a one-year standby list should there be an opening, or the newly created PSA program expands.
The six new PSAs will be tasked with enforcing parking violations, responding to non-injury crashes and taking minor reports. They will also play a role in directing traffic and performing other duties that assist commissioned officers.
Three of the new PSAs will serve full-time while three will be part-time employees. The Police Service Aides will wear distinctive, bright yellow, uniforms. The City has purchased three Ford Focus sedans that are marked units and will be utilized for the PSA program.
The PSA academy consisted of 160 hours of classroom and field training conducted by commissioned law enforcement officers. All-together, 411 applications were received for LCPD’s initial PSA program. All nine cadets who started the academy, graduated from the academy.
The PSA program was approved in 2018 by a unanimous vote from Las Cruces City Council.
