WHITTIER - After being shut down in October 2010 for improper testing practices, the Rio Hondo College Police Academy is up and running again, although on a limited basis.
The academy's first class of cadets since being suspended by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) participated in orientation Wednesday night.
The academy is authorized to begin conducting classes on a limited basis - only evenings and weekends - beginning June 6.
The number of cadets allowed was also limited to 45 - less than half the number allowed before the suspension, interim Police Academy Director Lanny Brown said.
And, with demand reduced by the academy's delayed reopening, only 29 cadets are actually participating in this first class.
"It's good news with baby steps," Brown said about the limited amount of cadets and sessions. "We're not immediately back to business."
Rio Hondo President Ted Martinez said the reopening is the result of administrators' "diligent" work with POST officials to reestablish the program with POST oversight.
"This is the good news we have been anticipating," he said.
Still, Brown acknowledged that the academy will have to rebuild its good name.
"Our reputation took a serious hit," he said. "When an academy held in such a high regard goes through something like this, it's a matter of earning back that reputation."
The academy, which opened in the early 1960s, was suspended after POST learned that students had been given questions to a test before they took the exam.
Last March, the commission offered the college a chance to reinstate the program, saying Rio Hondo officials had been "extremely cooperative" in its probe of the improper testing.
Two months later, the commission issued a report calling the incident the "greatest compromise of test security" ever encountered by the agency, according to the report's author Paul Cappitelli, the commission's executive director.
The commission also found "an outdated and vulnerable testing system."
The report absolved students from any wrongdoing, saying they were just following orders and didn't know the study guide was a breach of test security.
College officials said the breach stemmed from a study guide with actual test questions that a cadet brought to the attention of an instructor, who then reported it to the college and, ultimately, POST.
Whittier police Chief Jeff Piper is confident the academy will be able to rebuild trust with not only POST, but also with the law enforcement community.
"Their reputation is going to depend on their leadership and the people running the academy," he said. "Lanny Brown has worked with POST to make sure that curriculum needs are met and even exceeds POST requirement."
Piper sits on an advisory board that oversees the Academy's curriculum and procedures. That board also includes Brown, Gardena police Chief Ed Medrano, Pasadena police Chief Phil Sanchez, Culver City police Chief Don Pedersen, Signal Hill police Chief Michael Langston and POST area representative Charles Sandoval.
Information regarding future basic academy classes will be posted on the college's Public Safety Division website,http://leo.riohondo.edu/ , which will also include information about the application process.
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