Virginia State Police Academy graduates 37 in 2020 class

The 37 members of the 131st Basic Session officially graduated on Tuesday, at the conclusion of 29 weeks of academic, physical and practical training at the Academy on Aug. 21, 2019.

The class has received more than 1,300 hours of classroom and field instruction in more than 100 different subjects, including defensive tactics, crime scene investigation, ethics and leadership, survival Spanish, police professionalism, firearms, judicial procedures, officer survival, cultural diversity and crisis management.

The graduates of the 131st Basic Session are from every corner of the Commonwealth, as well as Florida, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina.

The new troopers will report to their individual duty assignments across Virginia the week of March 23, 2020. For their final phase of training, each trooper will spend an additional six weeks paired up with a field training officer learning his or her new patrol area.

As the need for highly-skilled and capable law enforcement officers increases, the Department continues to seek qualified applicants for the positions of trooper. All interested applicants are encouraged to contact the Virginia State Police Recruitment Office at www.vatrooper.com.