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Owens Department of Criminal Justice Receives Retired Patrol Vehicles for Training

The Owens Community College Department of Criminal Justice recently received a donation of two retired Ohio Highway Patrol vehicles for use in its training Ohio Peace Officer Training Academies.

The donation comes courtesy of Ohio State Representative Haraz Ghanbari.

“I am deeply grateful to The Ohio State Highway Patrol for their generous donation of two former patrol vehicles to the Owens Community College Police Academy,” Rep. Ghanbari said. “This contribution greatly enhances the training capabilities at Owens and supports their mission to prepare future law enforcement professionals. I look forward seeing these future officers out in our communities.”

According to Mark King, the manager of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy in the Department of Criminal Justice, at least half of his current fleet of training vehicles are getting aged with high miles.

With the high cost of vehicles, he cannot go out and purchase new ones every year. This donation allows him to rotate some of the older vehicles out of rotation.

“We don’t use them a lot, but when we do, the use is intense,” King said. “We rely upon these types of donations because the equipment for a public safety program is expensive.

“We can continue our basic driving program, which we do for our basic training academy, and we can offer advanced driving courses as well.”

King said he feels “pretty lucky” to receive the donation from Rep. Ghanbari, who King admits has a much larger reach then he does.

In addition to the Ghanbari donation, other public officials and representatives have been on site to tour the Center for Emergency Preparedness. Having those types of individuals on campus is critical, according to King.

“We need people like that to help us get the exposure so our programs become well known,” King said. “Our academies are some of the top open-enrollment academies in the state, but if people don’t know that it doesn’t help us that much.

“We’re a state agency, we don’t receive a lot of funding streams, so we have to rely on things like this to help us. Representative Ghanbari can touch thousands of people.”

The Center for Emergency Preparedness is one of six Close to Home regional advanced training programs in Ohio, through the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission. It also rents out space to outside agencies, such as Homeland Security, Toledo Police, Toledo Fire and Rescue, and the FBI.

Part of the training is putting students through the paces on Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy road courses on the Owens campus.

“Pursuit driving is very dangerous,” King said. “We know what they need to be safe on the street, especially during a high-speed chase.”

Having these new vehicles helps ensure Owens can turn out qualified individuals who are prepared to handle what the situations dictates.

“To me, good training can prevent or mitigate bad things that happen in policing,” King said. “Is it 100 percent? No, the human condition is too dynamic. It has been proven that good training can reduce or mitigate a lot of those really bad errors we see in policing, for the safety of our officers and community members.”

To learn more about the Owens Center for Emergency Preparedness, visit owens.edu/cep.

To learn more about the Department of Criminal Justice, visit owens.edu/business.