LANSING — The Michigan State Police is pleased announced that 128 recruits just completed the first week of 26 weeks of training to become Michigan State Troopers, including a resident of Cassopolis, Costas Christodoulides.

“At a time when police agencies nationwide are struggling to find qualified candidates, we have worked extremely hard to improve our recruiting and selection process to attract the most qualified women and men who best reflect the communities we serve,” said Col. Kriste Kibbey Etue, director of the Michigan State Police. “With 23 women in this class and 24 recruits who identify as a racial minority, this class is our most diverse recruit class in the last 20 years.”

To continue to build on this momentum, the MSP is redoubling recruiting efforts to find candidates for future trooper recruit schools, including launching new videos on social media to share the agency’s mission and message. The first video, “On the Lookout,” can be viewed on Facebook and YouTube.

During recruit school, recruits reside at the MSP Training Academy from Sunday through Friday each week. Between wake-up at 5 a.m. and lights-out at 10 p.m., they will receive over 1,200 hours of instruction in criminal law, patrol techniques, defensive tactics, ethics, cultural diversity and implicit bias, first aid, report writing, firearms, water safety, crime scene processing and precision driving.

Recruits who successfully complete recruit school will graduate on April 3, 2019. To learn more about a career with the MSP or begin the application process, visit michigan.gov/mspjobs.