Sixteen custody deputies of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department graduated Friday from an Allan Hancock College program about ethics, investigation procedures, contraband detection and other aspects of the job.
The program, called CORE Custody Academy, contains almost 250 hours of instruction in which participants — who want to be hired by a law enforcement agency or are currently employed by one — receive training. The program satisfies the State of California Standards and Training for Corrections requirements for students.
Graduates from the sheriff’s office include Kristen Mahurin and Cole Knapp, the deputy who saved save people during last year’s Borderline shooting in Thousand Oaks.
“He watched as the perpetrator walked into the bar, and shot the girl working the front desk, as well as the person behind her,” said Sheriff Bill Brown. “Custody Deputy Knapp guided others to the smoking patio of the bar, and over the fence into the parking lot. That’s when he spotted a California Highway Patrol officer making a traffic stop and informed the officer of the shooting.”
Along with the 16 custody deputies, Friday’s graduating class included a Lompoc police jailer and an independent custody deputy.
Deputy Mahurin, the valedictorian for the group, is following the footsteps of her parents, who are both retired custody lieutenants.
The program the 18 graduates went through aims “to prepare students mentally, morally, emotionally and physically for a career as a custody deputy or officer,” said Allan Hancock’s website. “The Core Custody Academy is an intensive college course with paramilitary discipline. “Students attending the academy will be academically and physically challenged, faced with solving complex problems in a stressful, disciplined and structured environment. Recruits receive basic training in many phases of custody and care of prisoners.”
The total per student cost of the program is approximately $1,200. For more information, visit hancockcollege.edu.
