Video: Fla. Sheriff Creates Own Academy to Fill Vacancies

In an effort to find better recruits and deputies, a Florida sheriff has created his own academy for his office.

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood's initiative is the first police academy in central Florida to be operated by a sheriff's office, WKMG-TV reports. The impetus for the academy came out of the challenges Chitwood had filling 80 openings.

“We were having a hard time recruiting,” Chitwood said. “Then COVID came and Daytona State College, which was our police academy here, shut down. And we said we had to turn the model on its head, we can’t rely on the way we used to do business, times have changed. So we got some help from our state senator and we pushed FDLE to allow us to have our own academy.”

The current recruits graduate in next month. The next group of recruits begin in January.

Chitwood said the academy, which has received applications from across the country, will graduate 40 new deputies over the next year.