Kentucky is getting another regional police academy, future police officers in the western part of the state will be able to train in Madisonville even before construction of a new $50 million facility.

Governor Beshear talked about it yesterday.

Mayor Cotton, it's been instrumental in helping us get set up in the Madisonville Police Department facility.

What that means is that we can start providing training sooner.

Instead of waiting the 1 to 2 years it'll take to construct a new facility.

Their work, the work of the folks behind me, especially Mayor Cotton, means that this February 24, new law enforcement recruits will begin their basic academy training, not in Richmond, but in Madisonville, For the first time ever, recruits that live in the western region of our state won't have to drive to Richmond, but will instead have access to a 20 week training academy that is so much closer to home.

This means they'll have more time with their families and more time to focus on their critical training.

This historic expansion also offers a nonresidential academy option, which means you don't have to stay on campus full time.

Right now, there's a five month waiting list to enter a training academy.

But a state law enforcement official says by next year, that waitlist will be gone.

Maybe one of the problems was we weren't looking at it from the administrative side of the chiefs and the sheriffs and understanding the frustration of that five or seven month wait period.

Having been there, I understand that.

And I think we need to make a promise to those chiefs and those sheriffs that that's where we're going to be a year from now.

Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green all have their own police academies and all other cities send their recruits to the Academy on Acu's campus.