Lea Skene
The Advocate
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana State Police Col. Kevin Reeves announced Tuesday that three employees have been reassigned after recent cadet training was found to extend beyond “normal parameters.”
Several cadets of the current training academy suffered injuries last week that raised alarm among agency leadership.
“Last night I met with cadets,” Reeves said. “I apologized to them for the events that took place. I took responsibility ... I take this very personally.”
Specifics about cadets’ injuries during training including bruising and broken bones, which Reeves said is “not uncommon” during the physical parts of training.
State Police leaders released little information about the incident until Tuesday afternoon. They confirmed late Monday only that the academy’s defensive tactics training program had been suspended and an internal investigation launched because the injuries went beyond what’s considered normal during those exercises, which include handcuffing, use of the expandable baton, pressure points, physical strikes, blocking and grappling techniques.
Reeves said by Sunday morning that training was suspended for the day, and the remainder of defensive tactics training was postponed.
“Although injuries are not uncommon during this training phase, the injuries reported last week were enough to raise our concern,” State Police Public Affairs Commander Capt. J.B. Slaton said in a statement Monday. “This prompted an immediate review by the senior command staff.”
Slaton said the training was suspended following information learned during the initial review and that internal affairs is investigating.