By Andy Simmons
LaGrange Daily News
LAGRANGE, Ga. — Two Troup County Sheriff’s Office detention officers recently graduated from the first Jailer Training Officer School sponsored by the Georgia Sheriff’s Association.
Officers Shannon Barnes and Cheryl Spencer completed the 40-hour course, which was hosted by the Dougherty County Sheriff’s Office.
“It’s designed to help standardize all the training programs in the state of Georgia,” Spencer said. “They taught us basic skills on how to train people and the correct way to train them, how to do evaluations and so forth.”
Aside from teaching the students valuable training skills, one of the purposes of the JTO program is to standardize all Sheriff’s Office jails so they operate under the same format by utilizing the Jail Training and Evaluation Program, or JTEP.
Spencer was proud to be one of the first two from Troup County that have graduated the course.
“It feels good,” Spencer said. “This was the first class taught in the state of Georgia. There were 16 participants from every county and it was a good experience.”
Barnes and Spencer are both senior officers that have been with the department for a number of years.
“This training will only add to level of expertise these two dedicated employees have and we look forward to sending more officers to future classes,” Sheriff James Woodruff said in a press release.
The next class is expected to be in March or April.