SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO.com) -- Minnehaha County Emergency Management is looking for a few good men and women to be reserve police officers.
"It is a competitive process," says assistant emergency manager Doug Blomker. "Upwards each year we have 30 to 50 applicants. We can't accept everybody. We're going to take the best of those applications and hopefully start training those people in January."
The reserve force is capped at 60.
Blomker says MCEM might accept 10-15 per year from 30-50 applicants.
Reserve police are volunteers who work events like the Sioux Empire Fair and patrol with police and sheriff's deputies. It takes five and a half months or 150 hours of training plus ongoing training once sworn as reserve officer.
"The training consists of, very simply, a shortened version of what anyone would get when they go to Pierre (for the law enforcement academy) to become a full-time law enforcement officer," Blomker said. "They would do community policing, firearms, first aid, defensive tactics, as well as a number of different subjects that they do."
Minnehaha County Emergency Management is taking applications for the next class of trainees now through September 14.
For more information, call the MCEM at 605.367.4290.