Derrick Crisenbery of the Hays Police Department not only graduated as the president of his Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center class, he also was the class's top shot.
He hit 49 of a possible 50 targets when he qualified on the range.
Twenty-three new law enforcement officers graduated from the KLETC on Friday, March 6 in the 263rd Basic Training Class.
Crisenbery, 35, is a veteran of the U.S. Army and was stationed at Fort Riley. He was a tanker while on active duty and served in medical logistics in the Reserves in Hays.
He said he always wanted to be a member of law enforcement and finally decided to apply.
“In my previous careers, I always missed the camaraderie of the military. I look forward to continuing my career with Hays PD and growing my law enforcement career," Crisenbery said in a Facebook post by the HPD.
Crisenbery added in an interview with the Hays Post, "I hope that I can just be a fair and impartial police officer and make sound judgments. I hope to be there for the people and to be there for our community."
Crisenbery lives in Hays with his wife, Lyndsey, and their four children.
He said he was happy to be back in Hays with his family after completing his training.
Mason Seery of Hays Police Department and Dakota Colhouer of Rush County Sheriff’s Office also graduated in this class.
During the ceremony, Crisenbery presented KLETC Executive Director Darin Beck with a check for $800 that will go toward projects such as the maintenance and upkeep of the KLETC Wall of Honor, which is a memorial to KLETC graduates that have fallen in the line of duty. This was the largest donation any class has provided.
“KLETC uses its endowment funds to support important initiatives such as the Wall of Honor or The Protector statue,” Beck said. “We even hope at some point to be able to offer scholarships through these funds.”
Winfield Chief of Police Robbie DeLong was the speaker for the ceremony in KLETC’s Integrity Auditorium.
The graduates, who began their training in November, represented 18 municipal, county and state law enforcement agencies from across Kansas.
Graduates receive certificates of course completion from KLETC and Kansas law enforcement certification from the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training, the state’s law enforcement licensing authority.
The training course fulfills the state requirement for law enforcement training. Classroom lectures and hands-on applications help train officers to solve the increasingly complex problems they face in the line of duty.
The KLETC and Cristina Janney of the Hays Post contributed to this story.