St. Joseph Police donate retired patrol vehicles to MoWest

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- The St. Joseph Police Department donated two retired patrol vehicles to Missouri Western State University's Law Enforcement Academy.

The City Council approved the donation during its May 11 meeting. The retired patrol vehicles will be used for conducting practical exercises, including traffic stop scenarios and other vehicle-based law enforcement training.

The vehicles will allow academy instructors to replicate realistic law enforcement scenarios that students will encounter in the field.

SJPD Captain Brad Kerns said donating the vehicles allows the department to give back to its community partners.

“We send our own cadets out there and were also helping embrace the future for public safety by providing this training equipment and getting these police cars out for them for these training services,” he said.

The vehicles had reached the end of their frontline service with the department, and the academy contacted the department after expressing a need for training vehicles.

“We donated them to the academy, so they can use them for some defensive driving and some police readiness driving,” he said. “That gets the cadets ready for the future.”

Hands-on vehicle training is very crucial for the cadets.

“The mindset behind it is that it gets them ready for the streets. Gets them ready for when they start to enter that training program with their field training officer,” he said. “That they have those tools in their tool bag and know how to actually handle a traffic stop.”

The department is looking to donate more equipment to the Law Enforcement Academy in the future.

"Not only does it benefit them, it benefits our area partners as well, because, for instance, tasers or vehicles start to end, they're no longer operable for us. They can benefit the college," he said.

Overall, the donation will ensure that the cadets can provide the best service to the community.