Fresh meat hits the road.

Twenty-five new police recruits will start their 24-week training course following an opening ceremony at the AFP College today (Monday, June 6) in Barton.

This ACT Policing course is the first to emerge from the ‘Think you’d make a great cop?’ recruitment campaign late last year. This campaign was developed to encourage members of the Canberra and local region to become ACT Policing officers.

The campaign was deemed a significant success, with 1355 applications received. More than 1000 applicants were from the ACT and NSW. Of the final 25 selected, 16 are from the ACT.

Chief Police Officer for the ACT Roman Quaedvlieg joined the recruits at their official induction this morning and commended them for getting through the tough recruitment process, which for the first time included assessment centres where serving ACT Policing officers had an active role in the selection process.

“For those who have reached this point, it is a major achievement. But now the hard work really begins,” Chief Police Officer Quaedvlieg said.

“The AFP prides itself on producing police officers of the highest standard. Policing today is a hugely challenging role. Every day for the next 24 weeks, recruits will find themselves tested mentally and at times, physically, in ways they have not experienced before and I look forward to following their progress as they learn and train to be the exceptional representatives we expect them to be.”

The new recruits range in age from 24 to 52. The recruit class comprises 13 women and 12 men, the highest female representation for any AFP recruit class.

?[Courtesy ACT Policing]