ADDRESS, MARYLAND STATE POLICE GRADUATION

PIKESVILLE
June 15, 1962

It is always a delight to stand in these pleasant surroundings and
welcome another class of graduates of our State Police Academy to
full membership in the Maryland State Police.

I offer my sincere congratulations to all of you who are receiving
diplomas in this 48th graduating class of the Academy. In your work
as students, you have demonstrated your fitness to serve in one of
the finest police departments in the country. Along with my congratu-
lations, I extend my warm best wishes to each of you for success and
enjoyment in your careers as law-enforcement officers. You have
begun your careers on a solid foundation—with adequate preparation
and training for the arduous, exacting work you will have as agents
of the government responsible for keeping the peace and enforcing
the laws.

The Maryland State Police is an agency of State government in
which all Marylanders take great pride. It is efficient, alert, aggressive
and dedicated to duty. Its individual members are courteous, correct,
proficient and devoted to their jobs. The splendid reputation the
Department has attained is attributable to many factors, but a main
reason is the emphasis our State Police places upon training and
education. And it is not just a matter of the instruction of recruits,
such as you have experienced here during the past six months. It is
the continuous training of personnel in all ranks.

The idea that anybody can be a policeman is as obsolete as the
ox cart. In our day to be a good policeman requires not only native
intelligence, but also specialized training in the techniques of
policing and a high degree of knowledge in the broad area of law
enforcement. No police department can hope to measure up to the
high standards of modern law-enforcement practices unless it carries
on a program of continuous upgrading of personnel through in-
struction. The State Police has not only concerned itself with the
continuous training of its own personnel, but has extended the edu-
cational facilities it has developed over many years to other jurisdic-
tions in the State.

I am told that during the past two years more than 350 men from
other police organizations in Maryland have been enrolled in classes
here at this Police Academy for basic training, advanced training

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