CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Corpus Christi Police Department is getting some new recruits.
On Tuesday, 51 cadets took part in training as part of the Corpus Christi Police Academy. There are 39 men and 12 women in the latest class.
Deputy Police Chief Bill Breedlove oversees the academy training and tells 3News that the department could use more officers on the street right now.
"We are budgeted for a string of 456 sworn officers, but currently we only have 431 sworn officers, so we really need this large cadet class and there's some consideration by city council of increasing our budgeted strength to 466 for the next fiscal year," Chief Breedlove said.
The current cadets won't be finished with this part of their training until March 2022.
Deputy Breedlove said these officers in training will help to fill the manpower shortage and potential vacancies that happen over the next year.
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