Rockingham PD's Owens earns law enforcement certification

ROCKINGHAM — Jan Owens is the latest officer with the Rockingham Police Department to earn an Advanced Law Enforcement Certification.

The announcement was made Monday on the Department’s Facebook page.

Owens worked in Wadesboro before coming to the Rockingham Department in 2014 and started the Shop With a Cop program.

According to the post, the certification process is “the culmination of approximately 1200 hours of Law Enforcement training and dedication by the applicant.”

“To date, nearly 90 percent of the Rockingham Police Department has received an Intermediate or Advanced Certification, a true testament to our departmental focus on training and education,” the post reads.

In order to qualify for the Advanced certificate, according to the N.C. Department of Justice, applicants are required to:

The N.C. Department of Justice lists the requirements of the Advanced certificate as:

• meet the requirements for the Intermediate Certificate, and
• accumulate at least 48 education and/or training points and at least 12 years experience, or
• accumulate at least 60 education and/or training points and at least nine years experience, or
• have an associate degree issued by an academic institution recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation; accumulate at least 36)training points and at least nine years experience, or
• have a baccalaureate degree issued by an academic institution recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation; accumulate at least 24 training points and at least six years experience, or
• Have a graduate or professional degree issued by an academic institution recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation; accumulate at least 16 training points and at least four years experience.

According to the department's 2021 Annual Report, presented by Chief George Gillenwater to the Rockingham City Council in February, 22 officers hold an Advanced Law Enforcement certificate and eight hold an Intermediate Law Enforcement certificate.