Academy Director Tim Dorminey announced that Thomas Waldon of the Jeff Davis County Sheriff's Office received the Overall Achievement Award for the 171st session. Waldon also won first place for firearms and second place for academics. Angela Fenstermaker of the Adel Police Department earned the award for Academic Achievement and also served as president of the class. Wayne Purvis, Jr. of the Berrien County Sheriff's Office won second place for firearms. Tifton City Council member David Hetzel of Tifton served as guest speaker at the graduation ceremony.
Other graduates included Michael Carr of Cairo, who was sponsored by the Grady County Sheriff's Office; Leonard Edwards, Jr. of the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport; Christopher George of the Echols County Sheriff's Office; Sherry Lorenz of the Crisp County Sheriff's Office; Laurie Mays of the Hawkinsville Police Department; Linda Pritchett of the Dodge County Sheriff's Office; Michael Purvis of the Tift County Sheriff's Office; Lance Ragans of Douglas, who was sponsored by the Douglas Police Department; Jason Spielman of the Unadilla Police Department; John Weissinger of Thomasville, who was sponsored by the ABAC Regional Police Academy; Walter Wichman, III of the Ware County Sheriff's Office; and John White of Eastman, who was sponsored by the Eastman Police Department.
The Regional Police Academy regularly holds multi-week intensive training sessions designed to acquaint officers with state-of-the-art law enforcement techniques. The Academy operates in cooperation with the Division of Social Science at ABAC.
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