AMERICUS — Brett Murray of Americus, chief investigator/jail administrator for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, has joined South Georgia Technical College (SGTC) as its new Law Enforcement Academy program director, announced South Georgia Technical College President Sparky Reeves.

SGTC was one of six technical colleges in Georgia selected to participate in a pilot project that will allow law enforcement officers to receive their Peace Officer Standards Training (POST) law enforcement training at a state technical college and obtain college credit at the same time.

“Our new Law Enforcement Academy is set to begin in January 2009 and this is a tremendous opportunity for South Georgia Technical College as well as the communities we serve. The fact that South Georgia Technical College was selected to host one of these new Law Enforcement Academies is a testament to the strength of our existing Criminal Justice Programs in Americus and Cordele,” said Reeves. “Brett Murray is an asset to our faculty and staff and I am confident that he will do an outstanding job as the program director for this new academy.”

Murray, who has a bachelor of science in criminal justice from Columbus State University and a master’s of public administration from Columbus State, has been employed by the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office as its chief investigator since 2005. He served as a sergeant in the Americus Police Department for over 12 years prior to joining Sheriff Pete Smith in the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office.

He has also worked with the Dawson Police Department and the Stewart County Sheriff’s Office as well as taught criminal justice and public administration courses on-line for the University of Phoenix and part-time at Abraham Baldwin College (ABAC) in Tifton.

Murray and his wife Schelly, who is the nurse manager for the Emergency Department at Sumter Regional Hospital East, have two daughters, ages six and two.

“I am very excited to be involved in the development of this new program at South Georgia Tech,” said Murray. “This is a tremendous opportunity for me to do something beneficial while also allowing me to utilize my law enforcement training and expertise to help develop the next generation of law enforcement officers.”

The Law Enforcement Academy will be a part of the SGTC criminal justice department which is chaired by Vanessa Wall of Ellaville. Jay Hilliard is the criminal justice instructor on the Crisp County Campus and Teresa McCook is a criminal justice instructor on the Americus campus.

The criminal justice program is currently the largest degree and diploma program at SGTC and the addition of the new Law Enforcement Academy is expected to increase its enrollment even more.

“South Georgia Tech’s Criminal Justice program is one of the premiere programs in Georgia,” said Reeves. “As a training center, South Georgia Tech will be able to provide additional support to local and regional law enforcement agencies as well as provide additional training opportunities for current students. This also should help ease the financial burden associated with training officers incurred by many small, rural law enforcement agencies because the training will be covered by the HOPE grant for those students living in Georgia.”

Wall, head of the SGTC criminal justice department, said that “as a former police chief of a small agency, I understand the difficulties that the law enforcement heads face when trying to fill vacancies in their departments. This academy will provide the resources necessary to overcome these dilemmas.”

Wall and Murray are currently working with SGTC administrators to get everything ready for the initial Law Enforcement Academy session which will begin in January 2009 The program will take between 18-20 weeks to complete and all the technical college faculty involved in the program will be POST-certified instructors.  Admission standards will require all students to undergo a thorough background check and adhere to all rules set forth by the state POST Council. Students will also have to meet minimum scores in English, reading and math.

Upon successful completion of the program, Law Enforcement Academy trainees will receive their peace officer certification and a technical certificate of credit (TCC) for completion of the program. With the TCC in hand, the new law enforcement officers can choose to continue their education toward a degree in criminal justice.

For more information, call Murray at 931-2756 or Wall at 931-6940.