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Manpreet Malhotra spent nearly a year training to become a police officer, going through an intense battery of mental and physical testing along with two dozen other recruits in the Edmonton Police Service’s latest graduating class.

But the toughest part wasn’t the physical training.

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“Communication,” the newly minted constable said Friday, when asked about the most challenging part of becoming a police officer. “It took me a lot of time to get used to talking to people, understanding their problems.”

When it comes to communicating, Malhotra has more tools at his disposal than most.

Malhotra crossed the stage Friday at City Hall with the 27 other members of the Edmonton Police Service’s 140th recruit training class.

It was a polyglot group. A police news release said the class includes members who are fluent in Arabic, Punjabi, Hindi, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Cantonese, Korean and Mandarin, in addition to English and French.