Pennsylvania State Police Academy

The Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey, Saturday, March 5, 2016. Vicki Vellios Briner, PennLive

(Vicki Vellios Briner)

Dysfunction inside the Pennsylvania State Police Academy went far beyond any single incident of alleged cheating, according to sources that include four cadets who left or were ousted amid the recent scandal.

Cadets from the 144th class said they entered an academy last September in which instructors routinely provided answers in advance of written exams that hadn't been updated in years. Those claims were corroborated by current and former members of the 110-year-old agency.

The four cadets also say instructors gave inadequate training in areas such as CPR and use of force, and made racist and discriminatory remarks during class.

"We were taught all the time that, as a police officer, if you get complacent you're going to get yourself hurt or someone else hurt," said one cadet, "and the academy didn't listen to themselves."

PennLive confirmed the names of the cadets it spoke to with a roster provided by the State Police last month. They spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal and concern about how going public could affect their careers.

"I will do everything in my authority to hold any individual who undermines our core values accountable," Commissioner Tyree Blocker said, in a written statement Friday. "Those who compromise our core values will receive no sympathy or respite from me."

UPDATE:

Maria Finn, a state police spokeswoman, said the agency "will work to improve testing to ensure it has proper accountability and safeguards against cheating in the future, and its training reflects the most modern and well-tested methods for preparing law enforcement for success in the field."

In all, she said, 36 cadets have left or been dismissed as a result of the cheating investigation. Based on prior estimates released by the agency, the departure of 36 cadets would leave 62 of the original 116.

"(The agency) has undertaken an active and comprehensive review of testing policies and training procedures, which includes the conduct of instructors," Finn said, in a written statement. "Because both the cheating investigation and the review of testing and training are ongoing, we cannot answer many of the questions posed (by PennLive)."

In recent months, sources within the agency said a number of key personnel at the academy have retired or were reassigned to other departments. Last week, Blocker said those changes had been in the works prior to the cheating allegations. No cadets from other classes have been implicated in the ongoing investigation, and no staff members have been implicated, he said.

State Police Commissioner Col. Tyree Blocker

The cadets from the 144th class said that after the investigation launched in December they lived under a shadow of suspicion for using test answers provided by instructors. Many of those instructors, they said, publicly shamed them or refused to teach them.

Now, they face allegations they had no opportunity to appeal and that will likely prevent them from working in law enforcement.

"How can you study?" one cadet, who resigned last month, told PennLive. "You're just so anxious every single day, not knowing what's going to happen to you, not knowing when an instructor's going to come in and flip out."

'Yelling, screaming, push-ups'

The Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey, Saturday, March 5, 2016. Vicki Vellios Briner, PennLive

When they arrived on Sept. 13, the cadets got the standard Hershey welcome: A rigorous physical fitness test followed by a drive up the hill to the academy, where a cadre of shouting instructors greeted them. They had to gather 100 pounds of gear and race up to their rooms as the instructors barked orders.

"I knew it was going to be just like the first day of basic training," said one cadet who, like many others, came to the agency after serving in the military. "Yelling, screaming, push-ups."

Another cadet said he spent a month preparing physically but was still awestruck that first day.

"For a non-military guy, my eyes were about this big," the cadet said, stretching out his fingers in front of his eyes. "'What's going on?' Getting yelled at. People all around me."

Like virtually every police academy, there's order as well as an underlying logic to the process. Eventually, the cadets fall into a routine of a 5 a.m. run, breakfast, menial chores around the academy, between eight and 12 hours of classes and then studying at night. Leadership will often switch up the routine with late-night training or random bunk inspections.

Between written, physical and firearm tests, the cadets will have to demonstrate their skills several dozen times. On some tests, they need to pass with a certain grade to move forward and any infraction, including a low test score, can lead to additional training or the revocation of weekend leave privileges.

According to police officials, the whole process is designed to test the cadets' ability to adapt and to weed out cadets who aren't committed or prepared for the rigors of the job. The ability to perform under pressure is important in emergency situations, they said.

An example of the kind of dismissal letter the State Police gave to cadets it determined were part of the alleged cheating scandal at the academy. A full copy is available at the bottom of this article.

Perhaps most importantly, the challenges help build bonds between the cadets and also between different classes. There are typically two, and sometimes three, separate cadet classes going through training at the same time.

Instructors routinely told the cadets "the next class should have it easier than you did." That meant that members of the 143rd class provided study materials to the 144th class that they had been given by members of the 142nd class. For example, one of the cadets dismissed from the academy last month said he received a study guide that had been created by and handed down from a cadet in the 141st class who now works as a trooper.

"One of the great things about police work and about being in the military is that camaraderie," said the cadet with a military background. "There'll be a small group of people that have ran up that same hill at Hershey the same number of times as I had.

"Unfortunately, I'm not going to get the enjoyment of becoming a state trooper," the cadet added. "I just got to run up the hill a bunch of times."

'Death by PowerPoint'

It didn't take long for the cadets to realize that something was amiss beyond what they considered to be the normal rigors of academy life. But they said they kept their objections to themselves and continued to remain silent for weeks after l

State police cadets at a graduation ceremony in 2011. DAN GLEITER | dgleiter@pennlive.com

eaving the academy.

"You do what they tell you," said one cadet. "You're trained to keep your head down and your mouth shut."

One of the first things the cadets noticed was they saw little diversity among the staff, with the majority of instructors being white men.

Then there was the curriculum.

Academic classes were dominated by slideshows full of legal definitions copied directly from the 1,000-page Criminal Justice Handbook each cadet receives when they enter the academy. Many of the instructors simply read the slides verbatim, the cadets said.

"They were death by PowerPoint, the majority of them," one cadet described the classes.

Cadets recalled that several instructors criticized the curriculum. The handcuffing technique, for example, did not jibe with how troopers in the real world would have to handle suspects, one cadet recalled an instructor telling the class.

"We were told several times that if you're not getting sued as a police officer, you're not doing your job correctly," said one cadet, who noted that multiple instructors repeated that line.

Other cadets remembered similar remarks by several instructors about the reality of police work departing from their training, including the use of force. Cadets said they were also told by several instructors to coordinate with their partners to ensure that police reports told a consistent story that did not reflect poorly on the agency or themselves.

The cadets described incidents in which an instructor singled out an Indian-American cadet with a question about whether that cadet wore a dot or a feather. Others made comments that cadets would have to get used to making arrests in trailer parks.

Bruce Gaston, president of the Retired State Police Association of Pennsylvania, said the troopers who go to work there are not looking for an easy assignment. They join the academy to share their knowledge with the next generation, he said.

"To get in there, you have to go through a resume and interview and get recommendations," he said. "It's not a place you put bad boys."

Teaching to the test

When it came to classroom lessons, the cadets said most of the instructors taught to the test. Many told their students that particular passages would be on that section's test, going so far as to highlight those facts in red on the PowerPoint, the cadets said.

During review sessions a day or two before written exams, some instructors would read the specific wording of questions and answers directly from the test, the cadets said. On certain tests, particularly ones for which cadets were required to attain a certain grade, two-thirds or more of the questions would be provided in advance.

The cadets said the test in which the alleged cheating incident took place -- a test on traffic regulations, which included a portion for which students were allowed to use their 1,000-page handbook for reference -- was treated the same way.

The Pennsylvania State Police Academy in Hershey, Saturday, March 5, 2016. Vicki Vellios Briner, PennLive

Based on those review sessions, many cadets created study guides that included test questions, answers and even the letter of the answer that corresponded to the multiple choice answer sheet.

"The culture of the environment made you not think that you did anything wrong," one cadet said.

Later, after the 144th class was confronted with news that a "cheat sheet" had been discovered in a hallway at the academy, one of the cadets brought an example of his study guide to academy staff. The cadet said he was told that was not the kind of material they were concerned about.

Aside from the ethical concerns of knowing questions and answers from the test, many of the cadets said they felt shortchanged by the training's lack of hands-on learning.

For example, passing the CPR test meant that the cadets would become certified to administer CPR upon graduation, the cadets said, even if they personally felt they didn't receive adequate instruction.

"To be honest, if I had to do CPR on you right now, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it," one cadet said. "I'm certified, but I would not feel comfortable doing it to anyone on the road."

Similarly, the cadets reported that their lesson on the use of force spanned just three days. "Right now it's the hottest topic and we spent very little time on it," a cadet said.

Some test materials were outdated, the cadets said. On one test about investigatory procedure, a question about where a trooper may look for a 14-inch television did not anticipate the advent of flat screen TVs that could be hidden in a drawer.

The cadets said the written exams weren't reprinted between classes. At one point, a cadet said, the question booklet the cadet received had the answers already marked in it from the last cadet who had taken the exam.

Test booklets featured the date they were last updated. In many cases, the cadets said, they had last been updated nearly a decade ago.

A retired state trooper, who requested anonymity because of concern of reprisals, said the reality is that some instructors do become apathetic after years of teaching subject matter on they consider themselves to have become experts.

"In all fairness, the subject matter doesn't change much," he said. "You can only park 25 feet from the fire hydrant. Murder in the first degree is murder in the first degree."

A scripted call home

The cadets said the test on which the alleged cheating occurred was taken in early December and the 144th class was first notified of the "cheat sheet" discovery on Dec. 22. A member of the command staff told the cadets that, "if you lost it, you know you lost it," and asked the culprit to come forward.

That allegation came as a surprise because cadets are required to empty their pockets at the start of a test and the instructors walk the aisles of the classroom while tests are being taken.

"It would be very obvious if anyone had a cheat sheet or a paper or anything of that nature," said one cadet.

The cadets said no one came forward.

The same request was repeated at least four times in front of the class and, in early January, an Internal Affairs investigation was launched at the academy. As that investigation progressed, a senior instructor yelled at the cadets for not coming forward. The cadets said weekend privileges were revoked for the whole class for nearly a month.

At one point, the cadets said an instructor told them that fingerprint and handwriting analysis was being conducted on the "cheat sheet." The cadets were never informed about the results of that analysis.

During that time, the cadets say, the whole class was on edge.

"Of course, you're going to second guess yourself," one cadet said, "because when you're at the academy, the only thing you're thinking about is the academy."

The four cadets said the academy seized the handbooks and cell phones of most, if not all cadets because -- as one cadet said -- "they didn't want us talking to the media." After several days without contact with their families, the cadets said instructors gave them access to a phone, with a sergeant standing nearby, and a script to tell their families that they were at the academy and that they were okay.

"They said 'don't read it verbatim'," one cadet said, "because they didn't want it to sound like we were reading from a script."

Later that day, after several families lodged complaints about the treatment of the cadets, the cell phones were returned but the academy kept the handbooks. Internal Affairs investigators interviewed each cadet in the class, but the cadets said they felt they were given leading questions designed to reach a predetermined conclusion.

"Anything you said they didn't believe," one cadet said. "For me, I felt I was prejudged going into it . . . you were already prejudged that you were guilty."

Each of the cadets said they were told to sign a document advising them that they were not entitled to have an attorney present. During the interview, each of them recalled at one point saying that, "if that's what you consider cheating, yes, I cheated," to questions about study guides and notes they had written in their handbooks.

Each interview ended within five or 10 minutes of that admission, even though the cadets tried to argue that such study guides were standard practice encouraged by the instructors. As several cadets pointed out, prior cadet classed appeared to have engaged in the same activity based on study guides that had been handed down to them.

"Once I said that, it was over," one of the cadets said. "That was all they wanted."

An example of a study guide handed down by an earlier cadet class to a member of the 144th class. It is included in a PDF at the bottom of this article.

The class had previously been split up into two platoons by alphabetical order. After the cheating allegations, they were reformulated into two new groups. One group moved on to wear the gray uniform top of a trooper; the other continued to wear the blue shirts of a cadet.

The cadets say they and all the other classmates who they know were later dismissed or resigned, were put into the latter group. At last count, they say, just 12 remained at the academy in that group.

Each of the cadets who were dismissed sat down to a pre-disciplinary conference in which the cadets were told about the regulations they violated. The cadets said they were not provided with any evidence in support of the violations or given a chance to refute the allegations.

Within a week of that conference, many of the cadets were formally dismissed. After the first few dismissals, several of the cadets resigned.

One cadet recalled: "Telling the truth did nothing for me."

A record that will follow them

Representatives for the State Police and Gov. Tom Wolf did not directly respond to many of PennLive's questions about academy and investigatory procedure in the alleged cheating case.

"As Governor Wolf has made clear, cheating is wrong and this type of misconduct will not be tolerated," said Jeff Sheridan, a Wolf spokesman. "Col. Blocker acted swiftly to initiate an investigation and the governor is pleased that the people responsible for cheating are being held accountable. As we have already stated, this investigation is ongoing and we have no further information at this time."

Blocker, who was confirmed as commissioner in December, said the cheating incident prompted a review of testing policies and training procedures, but it's unclear the extent or nature of any changes that will be made. It's also unclear how long some of the practices alleged by the cadets have been in place or what it may mean for troopers who graduated in recent classes.

The cadets PennLive interviewed said they took one additional test before they were dismissed. Those tests appeared to have a completely different format on fresh copy paper and were dated within days of when they were administered.

On that test, the instructors did not hold a review in which questions and answers were provided.

Since leaving the academy, one cadet has begun applying for sales jobs. The others are unsure how to proceed because it's unlikely they'll find law enforcement jobs.

"They're going to call the state and see that this kid was fired from the state. 'Can you tell us why?'," said one cadet. "Now, they're going to tell whatever future employer I could have that I have an integrity issue that I don't have."

Another cadet said a sergeant at the academy addressed the alleged cheaters before the entire class: "I'm going to make sure to do everything in my power to make sure none of you work in law enforcement ever again."

The following document includes examples of study guides and a dismissal letter sent by the State Police to one of the cadets.

Wallace McKelvey may be reached at wmckelvey@pennlive.com. Follow him on Twitter @wjmckelvey. Find PennLive on Facebook.