New recruits bring Salt Lake City Police Department closer to full staff
Jul 10, 2025, 6:35 PM
Sixteen recruits graduated from The Salt Lake City Police Training Academy on Thursday. (Salt Lake City Police Department on X)
(Salt Lake City Police Department on X)
SALT LAKE CITY — Sixteen recruits graduated from the Salt Lake City Police Training Academy on Thursday. This development puts the department a step closer to being fully staffed.
The training lasts for six months and involves hundreds of hours of classroom topics, reality-based scenarios, defensive tactics, firearms training, crisis intervention and emergency vehicle operations.
The recruits officially became officers in front of family and friends. Cade Palmer was one of them.
“A lot of stuff goes on here and I wanted to part of this, policing the community,” he told KSL NewsRadio.
“We’re here to protect the good people of Salt Lake City, do the right thing, and all-in-all just make it a safer place to live.”
Salt Lake City Deputy Police Chief Bill Manzanares, an 18-year veteran of the department, said that with this class, they need around 20 officers to be fully staffed.
“I don’t know the last time we were fully staffed. We’ve been close a few times,” he said.
The graduations come at a time when the Salt Lake City Police Department is undergoing a lot of change. Manzanares is one of three newly appointed deputy chiefs for the department.
And this is coming just a few months after getting a new police chief.
With these new officers and the changes, Manzanares says they feel good about the future.
“The feeling in the police department is very optimistic, hopeful for the future. We’re just excited,” he said.
Simone Seikaly contributed to this report. She is a digital content producer for KSL NewsRadio.
