With 32 of 39 officers holding some sort of college degree, University Police are at the top of their class. But for some of these officers, their school days are not quite over.

The eight police officers who will graduate from their emergency medical technician training this spring are the last of the force to become certified as EMTs.

The fact that all officers in the department will be certified EMTs puts them in a class all their own, since few departments can make that claim. The University Police are happy to be among them, but training is far from over.

On top of the years of college most of these officers have gone through, all officers have been through basic training and field training before they became officers at NIU. Members constantly are training to become better by reading magazines, viewing videos and visiting Web sites. Through a course offered at Kishwaukee Community College taught by instructors from Kishwaukee Community Hospital, the officers continued their schooling to become state-certified EMTs.

According to Lt. Matt Kiederlen of University Police, 22 of the 32 officers holding degrees have earned their bachelor’s degrees in a wide variety of fields. Seven officers hold associate’s degrees, and a few officers have earned master’s degrees.

Most notably, the force is led by Chief Donald Grady, who holds a doctorate degree in administration and management.

This underlines the next step in the continual training process, which probably will be a course in problem-solving from a business aspect, Kiederlen said.

The goal of this training is to center on solving problems before they escalate into the need for enforcement.

“Our department has come from a profession of one basic goal to encompassing an ideal to serve the public and assist in any way that we can,” Kiederlen said. “That’s where we want to go. We don’t want you to just think of us as the guys writing tickets or busting underage drinking.”