The academy strives to incorporate careful education for cadets on calls regarding homelessness, mental health, substance use disorder, and other crises.

VASSALBORO, Maine The saying goes that nobody can truly understand unless they walk a mile in their shoes. But when it comes to law enforcement, it's a job most won't ever experience.

The Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro is the only law enforcement program in Maine that trains and certifies police officers. It's a rigorous 18-week residential program designed to prepare men and women for the high-stress, split-second decisions they'll face on the streets.

NEWS CENTER Maine reporter Hannah Yechivi spent several days at the academy with the cadets, gaining an in-depth look at some of the programs todays officers are being trained for, which most people dont even know about.

To be certified for the 18-week training program, cadets would already need to have a secured job with a police department in Maine.

Cadets also are required to pass multiple tests -- polygraph, background, medical, physical fitness, psychological, and written -- and be at least 19 years old.

Repetition is important. That's where we develop proficiency," Josh Daley, the Basic Law Enforcement Program coordinator for the academy, shouted to the cadets in one of the many trainings.

Theres a lot of focus on defensive tactics and use of force in general. In addition to that, there's a lot of focus on verbal and nonverbal de-escalation techniques, he said as he explained the progression of the 18-week training program.

These techniques and tactics can be mentally and physically exhausting for many of the cadets going through the program.

We're constantly taking new trainings to see if there's better ways to do what we're doing, safer ways, or more effective ways, Daley said.

The majority of cadets who get admitted into the academy have limited or no experience in law enforcement or how to manage the high levels of stress that come with the job.

If we prepare them for worst case, everything else becomes a little bit easier to manage, everything else becomes a little more comfortable, even in the most uncomfortable states as law enforcement officers commonly find themselves in, Daley said.

When I chose to get into this field, it's because I wanted to do it. It felt like it was my calling, Vincent Perfetto, one of the cadets who went through the training to become a certified police officer, said.

For Perfetto, its a calling he felt compelled to answer. At 21, he's the youngest cadet in his class. His goal is to help people, and he knows it often will be in very uncomfortable situations, which is why this training is so important.

One of the most important things for anyone to do is to constantly seek self-improvement, and it helps a lot when you have people yelling at you, making you improve but then to know after the academy that you need to be your best for the sake of other people, and that's a very strong motivator, Perfetto said.

The training program goes in phases, from skills application to real-life scenarios. All trainings are designed to push him and every other cadet outside their comfort zone.

That was the other major change, I think. I was trained back in the '80s, [to] date myself a little bit, but relatively speaking we did no scenario-based training," Rick Desjardins, the director at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, said. "Today we do a tremendous amount of training with classroom participation, but then [it's] followed up by actually performing those lessons learned in the classroom in an as real-life-as-possible scenario."

When you experience it, you feel all of these things that happen physiologically. But to understand how they impact your ability to function ... is something you have to experience, Daley said. Then I build upon those, tunnel vision, elevated heart rates, labored breathing, fine motor skills, all of these things happen under pretty significant stress."

Its shocking at first. You think you know what it's like to get screamed at, but coming through here ... it's humbling. And as time goes on, again, you get used to it, but you also realize the importance, and your skin gets tough really quick, Perfetto said.

Make sure I check my gear, make sure my car is working, make sure my uniform is properly put together, make sure all my gear is working right, Desjardins said while highlighting some of the small but important things cadets are taught while in the residential program.

One oversight by an officer could have life-or-death consequences, which is why the duration of the program, the residential portion, and all the phases of the training are so critical.

"If you see an officer doing something they shouldn't do that could be dangerous or wrong, you've got to tell them, Desjardins said.

For the purpose of today's class, I am here as a dad of a child with autism, Matt Brown, a crisis-intervention team trainer for NAMI, said.

Nowadays, cadets also learn a skill that's becoming more and more important: how to handle interactions with people who have developmental disabilities, including those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

The number of people affected by autism and developmental disabilities is increasing big time. It's now 1 in 44. So they are going to interact with individuals with autism, and they are going to display with certain characteristics that can be very challenging in terms of safety issues, and it's important that they know how to recognize it, Brown explained.

Another part of an officer's day in many towns and cities in Maine is interacting with people who are experiencing homelessness.

Jim Devine and Cheryl Harkins were formerly homeless, and they came to teach a class to the academy along with the Preble Street Resource Center. They believe that if cadets can hear about their experiences they faced while being unhoused and about the interactions they had with police during that time that future officers can learn different ways to deal with people without a home.

Most of my life I was a master electrician," Devine said. "I was able to house myself. But I am also in recovery from alcoholism, and my drinking is what put me on the streets, you know, which is what happens."

I actually had an officer approach me at a park-and-ride and tell me that I didn't qualify to park in one because I didn't have a home to drive to, Harkins said. "So [it's] just things like that. We are hoping that it would make a change."

Desjardins said the academy has been reflecting on and adapting to how it educates cadets on community challenges such as homelessness.

The concept around that homeless issue is something that I think we've had to take a hard look at how we responded years ago, which is issuing trespass notices, kind of just moving people along as opposed to today, which we really try to listen to the situation that they are in and try to think about how we might be able to facilitate a solution, Desjardins said.

In this day and age, many police officers frequently respond to calls that deal with mental health, autism, counseling, abuse, and other topics that fall into their hands, so the Maine Criminal Justice Academy is making sure the new generation of cadets is prepared for the most common type of calls police officers are getting these days.

In the state, we have about 2,500 sworn law enforcement officers, but we only have around 85 crisis workers, and so we are asking law enforcement to fill in the gaps for a very depleted mental health system, Hannah Longley, director of community programs at NAMI, said.

Longley is teaching future officers how to recognize the signs and symptoms of someone having a mental health crisis.

"We do know in the last year that departments are reporting an increase of 30 up to 60 percent increase in the mental health call volume, that they are seeing in their communities, Longley said.

Roughly 40 percent of people who have a mental health challenge will first be engaged by someone in uniform, Longley said, and often that officer may come with preconceptions.

I know that implicit bias is a big one. We see that all the time," Daley said. "It's always good to understand our own biases and try to effectively work around those things to ensure that they don't come into play in our position as law enforcement officer, which is intended to be objective. We have that training as well, but I think there's always continued training in those areas."

Some of the other important topics cadets are being trained on include implicit bias, stress management, sexual harassment and discrimination, dealing with vulnerable and elder issues, child abuse, and cultural diversity.

After 18 weeks, the class of 68 cadets, the largest in the program's history, have graduated and are now at departments across the state, including Perfetto at the Gorham Police Department.

It's like a big knot in my stomach," the newly certified officer said. "I have to say goodbye to some of the best friends I've ever made. But it's also the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life, to know that my dreams come true, and Im about to do it for real."

Nowadays you can find Perfetto answering any calls that come in, and he's thankful for those 18 weeks.

Its been an immense help, the amount of tools they've given us. I feel more than adequately prepared for whatever they throw at me here, Perfetto said.

His message to people who don't carry a badge is this: I just want people to remember that we are normal people too. We have a very different job than most of you, and it can be very stressful, it can be dangerous. We are trying our best. We hope that everyone feels better or at the very least safer afterward. But at the end of the day, we are just humans, and we are doing the job to the best of our ability, Perfetto said.

Before and after graduating, Perfetto also spent a total of 12 weeks paired with a training officer who showed him the ropes. Desjardins said nowadays it's not sufficient for the academy's training to focus just on the law, arrest and control, defensive tactics, driving, and firearms.

And while all of those topics covered are extremely important, one critical component are those classes focused on mental health, racial in biases, how to deal with the homeless or with people with disabilities and substance use disorder, welfare checks, suicide attempts or threats, and other crisis calls.

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