Class 23 begins training for Douglas County law enforcement agencies

Class 23 began its 21-week run at the Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Facility with cadets headed for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Greenwood Village Police Department, Lone Tree Police Department and Parker Police Department. The class started July 20, giving Douglas County law enforcement another new pipeline of recruits before those agencies can count them in the field.

Sheriff Darren Weekly addressed the cadets as the class got underway. His remarks carried added weight at a facility that has become a recurring source of new deputies and officers for the county’s agencies, including the sheriff’s office in Castle Rock and the police departments serving Lone Tree, Greenwood Village and Parker.

The academy’s 21-week schedule matters because it sets the timeline for when residents could feel any staffing benefit. These recruits do not immediately become patrol-ready officers; they must finish the full training cycle before they can move into local departments and begin filling sworn positions that support day-to-day response, jail operations and community policing across Douglas County.

The class also fits a pattern. Douglas County Sheriff’s Office posts show earlier academy cycles, including Class 21, which the office said completed its final installment of “21 Weeks” at the Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Facility. In another graduation announcement, the sheriff’s office said 13 Douglas County sheriff’s deputies graduated from the facility, underscoring how often the academy supplies the county’s own staffing needs.

Recruiting remains a visible part of that pipeline. A Douglas County Sheriff’s Office deputy cadet posting for the Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Foundation listed pay at $3,725 a month, or $44,700 a year, in a bulletin dated Sept. 24, 2021, with an application deadline of Oct. 8, 2021 at 4 p.m. Mountain. The posting shows the county has had to define the job not just as a training slot, but as a paid entry point into local public safety work.

Weekly’s own background also connects the academy to the county’s broader law-enforcement culture. The Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Training Foundation says he began in 1988, at age 16, when he joined the Cherry Hills Police Department as an Explorer. That history put him in front of a new class now feeding Douglas County’s next generation of deputies and officers.