The New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Monday welcomed 40 new trainees to its police academy in Kingston. The new class of recruits will train at the academy for seven months to become sworn officers in the DEP Police Division, which protects the watershed lands, reservoirs and infrastructure that comprise the largest municipal water supply in the United States.
“I want to extend my welcome to the latest class of recruits, and wish them good luck as they train to become police officers,” DEP Commissioner Vincent Sapienza said. “Our police recruits undergo some of the most rigorous training of any department in the country because of the diverse nature of their responsibility to protect the environment, uphold the law, and secure our vast water supply. The new class is fortunate to have excellent instructors at our academy, and I know they will work hard to learn the laws, skills and tactics necessary for their important work.”
The new class of DEP police recruits will train at the Staff Sgt. Robert H. Dietz DEP Police Academy in Kingston. The class of 40 recruits includes 29 and 11 women, four of which are military veterans. The class includes members from New York City, the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, and six countries including Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Kosovo and Thailand. Twelve of the trainees speak more than one language. The recruits range in age from 21-40, with the average age being 27.
They were selected from about 5,465 candidates, which were ultimately whittled down through a physical fitness test, background checks, health screenings and in-person interviews.
DEP police recruits go through a rigorous program that comprises 1,275 hours of training over the span of seven months. New York State requires new police officers to undergo 750 hours of training. Recruits who train at the DEP Police Academy learn law enforcement fundamentals such as criminal procedure law, vehicle and traffic law, penal law and defensive tactics. They also focus on special topics that prepare them to protect the reservoirs, lands and infrastructure that provide high-quality drinking water to 9.6 million people every day – nearly half the population of the State of New York. These special topics include environmental
enforcement, counterterrorism, and a detailed overview of the water supply’s infrastructure and facilities. Upon graduation, new recruits and their colleagues in the DEP Police Division are charged with protecting 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, more than 185,000 acres of watershed land, nearly 400 miles of aqueducts, 29 water supply dams, 57 bridges, 7 wastewater treatment plants, and more than 280 shafts, chambers, laboratories and other facilities that help the water system function. These facilities and lands stretch across parts of eight counties and roughly 2,000 square miles of watershed.
Recruits trained at the DEP Police Academy will eventually be stationed at one of seven DEP Police precincts in Ashokan, Beerston, Downsville, Eastview, Gilboa, Grahamsville or Yonkers. The DEP Police Division, which was established more than 100 years ago, patrols the watershed by foot, bicycle, all-terrain vehicle, motorcycle, boat and helicopter. It also maintains specially trained units that include a detective bureau, emergency service unit, canine unit and aviation unit.
DEP manages New York City’s water supply, providing more than 1 billion gallons of high-quality water each day to more than 9.6 million New Yorkers. This includes more than 70 upstate communities and institutions in Ulster, Orange, Putnam and Westchester counties who consume an average of 110 million total gallons of drinking water daily from New York City’s water supply system. This water comes from the Catskill, Delaware, and Croton watersheds that extend more than 125 miles from the City, and the system comprises 19 reservoirs, three controlled lakes, and numerous tunnels and aqueducts. DEP has nearly 6,000 employees, including almost 1,000 scientists, engineers, surveyors, watershed maintainers and other professionals in the watershed. In addition to its $70 million payroll and $168.9 million in annual taxes paid in upstate counties, DEP has invested more than $1.7 billion in watershed protection programs—including partnership organizations such as the Catskill Watershed Corporation and the Watershed Agricultural Council—that support sustainable farming practices, environmentally sensitive economic development, and local economic opportunity. In addition, DEP has a robust capital program with $20.1 billion in investments planned over the next decade that will create up to 3,000 construction-related jobs per year. For more information, visit nyc.gov/dep, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/nycwater, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/nycwater.
