Mayor writes letter to citizens addressing downtown safety

I wouldn't have called T.R. Jude and "The Crank" Gosney reliably objective outside parties.

The state trains people like they're going to be highway patrol and that's not what's needed in an inner city. They could let the state do the first part of the academy but there will always need to be some training specific to LMPD.

Military-style police training is good at washing out people who are not mentally tough enough to be street officers or who are physically unfit, but that is about all it's good for. A lot of people sail through academies and end up being horrible. A lot of others who'd make good officers already went in the real military and have no desire to get hazed again. The federal academies don't do the military-style screaming and pushups and they don't seem to have a major problem because of it. I bet LMPD could train police recruits just as well doing it that way.

You are a special kind of stupid if you think Richmond's academy is worth a damn. I've been around long enough to have been there. It was a joke. PT was "at your own pace" and I don't recall being able to fail PT. The whole academy was designed for patrolling rural Ky. Richmond's biggest benefit is for the small departments that can't afford to have their own proper academy.