This fall, DeSales University will offer its criminal justice and homeland security majors the opportunity to attend the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission Basic Training Program (MPOETC) at the Allentown Police Academy in Allentown, Pa., as part of its degree program.
If DeSales students are accepted into the MPOETC program, the cost of the training is included in the student’s undergraduate DeSales tuition.
The MPOETC course, as prescribed by Pennsylvania ACT 120, not only provides the skills necessary to become a police officer, it is also required training for all Pennsylvania municipal police officers.
"We're grateful to Chief Morris and the Allentown Police Academy staff for working with DeSales to give our students this opportunity,” said David Seip, instructor of criminal justice and ACT 120 coordinator at DeSales. “Graduating with a four year degree and ACT 120 certification will be a big benefit to our students. More departments are requiring their applicants to have their ACT 120 certification before applying for the openings in their departments.
“Even in departments that are not requiring their applicants to be certified, our students will still have the advantage,” Seip continued. “They will be able to begin work immediately, while an applicant without the certification would be required to attend an academy at the hiring department's expense before they would be able to begin working.”
In addition to being a full-time criminal justice or homeland security major, students who wish to enroll in the ACT 120 training program must complete required criminal justice courses at DeSales, maintain a certain grade point average, have no DeSales University disciplinary or criminal violations, and pass a physical test administered by DeSales and a physical and mental test administered by the Allentown Police Academy.
Qualified students will spend the spring semester of their senior year attending the Allentown Police Academy for ACT 120 training, which will also satisfy the degree requirements for a bachelor’s degree from DeSales.
“The Allentown Police Department and the Gerald M. Monahan Sr. Allentown Police Academy are proud to partner with DeSales University on this initiative, said Keith A. Morris, Allentown’s chief of police. “Criminal Justice programs that offer Act 120 trainings part of the curriculum give the student a distinct advantage in pursuing a law enforcement career as it makes them marketable to a larger group of police departments immediately upon graduation. This partnership is the first of its kind at the Allentown Police Academy and it is our hope that in the long run there will be a direct impact on hiring for the Allentown Police Department.”