Make a difference in your community! Become a law enforcement officer. Surry Community College
offers a six-month Basic Law Enforcement Training program that gives entry-level individuals the
skills to become certified police officers and deputy sheriffs in the state of North
Carolina.
The reasons people go into law enforcement are similar – a desire to serve their communities
through a career that is meaningful and exciting.
“My path that lead me into this career, this profession, as a law enforcement officer
was more of a calling. I know many would say they had family members or others that
they knew were in this field. For myself, it just felt like a calling – a place that
I needed to be – to help serve and protect and work in the community where I live.
Lefevre is a SCAT or Subject Control and Arrest Techniques Instructor with Surry Community
College’s Basic Law Enforcement Training program. He came through Surry’s BLET program
in 2002 and is a Patrol Lieutenant with the Surry County Sheriff’s Department.
We try to enforce that fact being physically fit is really important for officers in the
field, not just that we want to get them through this course, so they can pass the requirements
of the BLET program, but that physical fitness is a foundation. It’s amazing in the BLET
program to see the cadets or the students as they come in to see them complete something
that they might not have thought they could before.
I like helping people and I really want to make a difference, and I thought what better
way to do that than law enforcement.
The instructors that we have here, they have a great amount of knowledge. So if you do have
any questions or don't understand something, they’d be quick to give you an answer. It’s a blast. I haven’t regretted
doing this one day since we started.
BLET Student Elizabeth Simmons decided to go into law enforcement because police officers
had helped her family through difficult times.
We have great instructors. They push us hard all of us, and they don’t really allow failure.
So, that’s a good thing. One of things I have gotten from this program is confidence.
A majority of the sheriff’s deputies and city police officers in this region received
Basic Law Enforcement Training at Surry Community College with hundreds of officers having gone
through the program since its inception in 1974.
Ronald Hill is the Director of Law Enforcement Programs at Surry Community College’s Center
for Public Safety where the BLET program is headquartered.
Hill came through Surry’s BLET program as a deputy sheriff in 1975. He has 40 years
of law enforcement experience under his belt having retired as the Chief of Mount Airy
Police Department Chief. He took over the BLET program in 2013.
It’s a calling. It’s a career. It’s not a job. A person is looking for a job – they
are looking at the wrong place. This is a career. It’s a lot of negatives. Your shifts
are terrible. There are swing shifts. You see the very worst in people, but you also
see some of the best. You can look back and say well I made a difference in someone else’s
life. Not everybody can do that. It has to be that type of mentality that goes into law
enforcement.
BLET is a 680-hour program with 37 topics covered including everything from ethics,
constitutional law, motor vehicle law to criminal investigation and anti-terrorism. Surry Community
College operates three BLET schools each year, two day schools and a night school.
One thing that Surry Community College has done, which I am extremely proud of, is our
instructors – the quality of our instruction is excellent. We have a 100 percent passing
rate for the state comprehensive written exam, and that is something that is just not common.
Barry Vanhoy is the BLET Lead Firearms Instructor who works for the Mount Airy Police Department
as Patrol Captain. He is also a graduate of Surry’s BLET program.
I had a full-time job that I worked third shift and went to Surry Community College’s
Basic Law Enforcement Training program night class to fulfill my dream of becoming a police
officer. It’s just been a blessing since. I feel like this profession is a calling,
and I was called to do it. And, 24 years now, I don’t dread a day of it. I go into work,
and it is something new and different every day.
We have folks that have never shot guns, and we have folks who have a lot of experience
with guns. So we try to bring that individual who has never had that experience up to their
level and get everybody on the same page. One advantage of choosing Surry Community
College’s Basic Law Enforcement Training program is our weapons. We have generation
4 glocks that have recently been purchased. We also have Remington 870 shotguns that will
shoot double 00 buck shot, 1 oz. slugs. We also have AR-15, .223 rifles
that gives these students some long gun training that they may not get anywhere else. Also
the college gives extended hours on the shot gun training that have been taken out of many
BLET programs over the last few years. Agencies around here still carry those shotguns in
their patrol vehicles and is a very valuable weapon.
BLET students at Surry also have access to excellent nearby training facilities. The
Mount Airy Firearms Range has a turning target system along with a shoot house for close
quarter combat training, force-on-force training, team movement and room clearing. Students
also practice on a 100-yard rifle range with still targets and running man targets.
Jesse Owens has been working at Surry since 1989 as a BLET instructor.
Students want to come here, and they want to participate in our programs. And it makes
Surry college one of the best colleges in the state, and I am proud to be part of Surry
Community College.
After I show them practicals, they say “oh man I don’t know if I can do this or not.”
We get them out there and demonstrate the different types of movements the car will
make how it tracks, how it corners, how it breaks and how it steers. And, we try to take
them from a slow different course, and then we bring them to the last day, which is our
pursuit course.
Students complete eight hours of classroom work and then drive for 40 hours through different
practicals.
It’s pretty exhilarating. You kind of get a rush from it, especially when the instructors
are driving because they are the most experienced. It’s fun, but at the same time you have
to be safe.
I chose Surry Community College for Basic Law Enforcement Training because I wanted
to find the most experienced and professional teachers that I could, and that is what I
found here at Surry Community College.”
I had researched numerous different schools, and Surry wasn’t the closest for me. However,
I felt like it was better suited to my needs, and they really impressed me when I interviewed
for their BLET program. The instructors so far have been great – they are very thorough.
That’s what I love about Surry is that all of our instructors have the experience and
can share that with us.
Taking BLET can help students go into related career paths. Graduates receive 12 credit
hours toward the Criminal Justice Technology degree at Surry Community College. The North
Carolina State Highway Patrol also offers an accelerated program for BLET graduates.
Military veterans are highly suitable candidates for the BLET program.
The reason I am going into law enforcement is that I did four years in the military,
and after serving my country, I think it would be best for me to serve my community – something
I have always wanted to do.
I think it’s a great career path for anyone that’s been in the military. There are a
lot of things that we have done in the military that applies to law enforcement – the discipline,
just serving your country then going to serving your community. The transition from military
to law enforcement – I think it has been pretty easy. Team work applies a lot. There
is a bond between law enforcement officers. That is something I always enjoyed about the
military and also something I will enjoy about law enforcement also.
The job marketing is excellent for BLET graduates. Law enforcement officers are in high demand
with state and regional agencies heavily recruiting. Some agencies are giving conditional offers
of employment before students even graduate from the program. Surry graduates have become
agents with the State Bureau of Investigation, N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles and Alcohol
Law Enforcement along with serving their local communities as police officers and deputies.
For more information, contact Ron Hill at (336) 386-3292. For program updates, follow
the program on facebook @surryblet. You can also go to surry.edu for more information.