APD graduation

new albuquerque police officers. it's the smallest cadet class in a decade for a police department that's under intense scrutiny for police shootings and other problems. stuart dyson is here with the challenges confronting a- p-d. stu. some critics of the police department may find this hard to swallow - but there's no shortage of young men and women who want to be a-p-d recruits - the shortage is the right kind of recruits. eleven new police officers - out of a class of 16 cadets - selected from a pool of more than 300 applicants - these are the ones who prevailed in the intense six month TRAINING PERIOD. " Thanks for stepping up - you're the best - you're the brightest - a lot more started the cadet class than finished - and that says a lot about each of you as individuals." NOWADAYS A-P-D insists on more education and more emphasis on psychology - it's not enough to be strong and fast and good with a gun. " To hire officers who have a better ability to deal with people one on one - have a very strong compassionate side - the ability to communicate - show empathy - relate better to the people we serve." BUT THE numbers are troubling - the brand new class now under way has only ten cadets while 31 veteran cops are planning to retire at the end of this year. but the chief says sometimes the small numbers can HELP. " There are some obvious advantages with a smaller class - we've seen it with this class - much more hands on personalized instruction - much more time to work very complex problems on a one on one individual basis." just a few hours after the a-p-d graduation bernalillo county graduated ten new sheriff's deputies - for a department far smaller than the albuquerque police. right now a-p-d has just over one thousand officers - the department's authorized strength is eleven hundred officers - back to you. an inmate accused of fighting with