Published: March 27, 2008 10:42 pm      

RPD gets three new officers

Three new officers joined the Richmond Police Department this week, bringing with them honors from the Department of Criminal Justice Training.

Chip Gray, 25, of Bardstown, Dustin Mullins, 26, of Berea, and Kyle Hurt, 26, of Richmond, graduated March 11 from the basic law enforcement training academy at DOCJT. They began their 16-week on-the-the-job training this week.

“All three of the officers distinguished themselves while completing the 18-week academy,” said RPD Chief Larry Brock. “Officer Mullins was recognized as the Recruit of Distinction in the class as well as receiving the Academic Achievement Award. Officer Mullins and Officer Hurt were also recognized for their roles as squad leaders for the class.

“Additionally, Officer Gray was recognized for his efforts as the Special Projects Officer for the class,” Brock said. “Officer Gray organized a community outreach project for his class to help support a women’s substance abuse center in the Richmond Community.”

The Academic Achievement award is given to an individual who receives the highest scores on all his or her academic testing, Mullins said. He averaged a 95 percent. The Recruit of Distinction similarly earns high scores on all his or her testing, including physical fitness and firearms, and never “got into trouble” during the academy, Mullins said.

“It was tough,” he said. “I was the only one in our class who got it.”

Gray led the class’ service project by working with volunteers at Liberty Place to raise money and donate personal items such as toothbrushes and tooth paste as well as paper goods.

“It went really well,” Gray said.

Each class is broken into four groups, Hurt said, and each group has squad leaders. Officers interested in the leadership role apply and both Hurt and Mullins were selected for the positions by academy officials.

“I received a lot of positive comments on these three from the people at the academy — the instructors and the staff there,” Brock said. “They did a great job and we’re hoping that the officers that follow them through the academy rise to the same level.”

Mullins, Hurt and Gray bring RPD’s force up to 58 in uniform, Brock said, but four more potential officers are scheduled to begin the academy April 7.

“That will move us up to 62, but that still leaves us eight short of our target number of 70,” Brock said. “We have three others in the hiring process and we’re preparing to give another test here shortly to get some more people into the process.”

Outside the classroom

In 2005, Gray graduated from Eastern Kentucky University with a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. After spending some time in Richmond, Gray said he got to know some RPD officers and decided to apply for employment with the agency.

“It seemed like a growing department,” Gray said. “I like Richmond as a city and it seemed like a good place to start my career.”

Mullins, who grew up in the southern end of Madison County in Berea, is married to Lyndsey Mullins and said he chose Richmond in part because of its size.

“There’s not too many problems, but there’s still work to be done,” Mullins said.

Mullins served four years active duty as a Marine and two years in the reserves, he said. He worked in a fleet anti-terrorism unit and served in more than 10 countries.

“This is truly what I always wanted to do,” Mullins said. “I knew the Marines would be a good stepping stone.”

Hurt grew up in the Valley View community and spent most of his latter secondary education years at Bluegrass Baptist School before attending EKU for about three and a half years, he said.

“When I was about 21, I thought about it and applied and actually applied for here and never really heard anything back and never really kept the ball rolling on that so I just always found jobs here and there that were pretty good especially while I was going to school,” he said. “It just never did hit me until all of a sudden this past February I had this urge that this is what I need to be doing and I applied to come work here.”

Gray, Mullins and Hurt are the first recruits to enter post-academy into a newly designed on-the-road police training. The new training is broken down into four phases with evaluation periods. Gray is being trained by Officer Norman Craig, Hurt is being trained by Officer Greg Marcum and Mullins is being trained by Officer Cathy Eaves.

Kelly Foreman can be reached at kforeman@richmondregister.com or 624-6694.