Call it a sign of the times but the recent graduates from the Northern Michigan University Public Safety Institute all had jobs before they left the university.

“It is amazing to see,” training director Adam Maynard told The Mining Journal. “All of them are already hired. A lot of the times you’d exit the academy and look for a job. We are so short on officers that departments are hiring to put people in the academy.”

According to NMU, the 20 new would-be officers will be spread out among a dozen departments across the Upper Peninsula. The graduates went through a 16-week course involving many aspects of training including martial combat, gun training, textbook work and more.

“Most of the time when you want to be a cop, you want to stay in the area. So we are happy that we can send them out and stay in the area,” Maynard said. “It just takes a lot. The training, the schedules and all that… It’s a lot of behind the scenes work to get everybody set.”

NMU was able to offer these students a place to work close to home in communities they know. These include: Chocolay, Dickinson County, Gogebic County, Hancock, Hannaville, Houghton, Laurium, Manistique, Marquette, Munising and even at Northern Michigan University.

We believe it safe to say that police work is not an easy way to make a living these days. According to an online survey, about 70 percent of departments across the country report difficulties in recruiting new officers. Why? Probably public perception and community relations have something to do with it. Additionally, the hours are long, the work itself is often thankless and the requirements to be a police officer are stringent.

We are pleased that NMU’s academy has developed such a positive reputation that its graduates are in high demand.