Rotary welcomes Rogers

    HOULTON — The Houlton Rotary Club welcomed John Rogers, director of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, Sept. 10. Rogers spoke about the academy, which is located in Vassalboro.
    According to Rogers, throughout the United States, there are 648 academies, with just one in Maine. All law enforcement groups are trained together. The cost for the Maine Criminal Justice Academy is about half of most other states, one reason for that is they do not pay the instructors, the students become the teachers.
Contributed photo/Michael Clark
ROTARY GUEST — The Houlton Rotary Club welcomed John Rogers, middle, to its Sept. 10 meeting. Rogers is the director of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. With Rogers are Houlton Police Chief Butch Asselin, left, and Rotary President Ryan Bushey.
    The Flagship training is four and a half months and is broken into three categories. The first is education, which covers the laws. Second is “hands on,” which includes driving, shooting and fingerprinting. The third is scenario based, which includes putting it all together.
    Trainees do go through a lot of stress training, which helps prevent less injuries and deaths. They learn how to be a leader, many officers in Maine are out there on their own and need to know how to take the lead. So if you want to be in Law Enforcement how difficult or easy is it to get in the door? Harder than most would think, in the most recently graduated class 94 had applied and 61 were accepted.
    During the training, it is typical to lose 5-10 percent of trainees for various reasons. Maine is the only state that you can lose your certification for conduct. Most states you must be convicted of a felony. Maine has very high standards for its law enforcement agents, Rogers said. The most common areas seen in Maine for agents to loose their certification are for domestic violence and alcohol use.