State regulators are investigating allegations of hazing at the police academy at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, where rookie officers are trained for city agencies from Anaheim to Palos Verdes Estates.

The state Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training on April 25 ordered the Regional Criminal Justice Training Center to look into the allegations of “improper, cruel and punitive” treatment by training officers. The academy was ordered by POST to report back in 60 days.

“Based on the nature of the allegations regarding this complaint, POST finds there is sufficient information to warrant further investigation,” wrote James F. Grottkau, chief of the basic training bureau for the state commission, in a letter responding to a complaint from former training officer Sheddi Skeete.

The college responded Monday that it is investigating whether the academy is operating within POST regulations as well as within standards at other police training facilities. However, spokesman Erik Fallis noted the Golden West academy strives to prepare recruits for a stressful job.

“Police work is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding. The Golden West College Regional Criminal Justice Training Center works to ensure that officers are appropriately trained to deescalate conflicts and engage with the public in a professional manner at all times,” Fallis said. “It is the intent of the program to create stress levels that are reasonable with clear training objectives.”

Skeete, a 23-year veteran of the Anaheim Police Department, made the allegations to POST after spending nine months as a training officer at the academy.

“These are not Marines, these are not Navy Seals, these are police academy recruits,” Skeete said in an interview. “If you treat recruits like (expletive), they are going to get out and treat the public like (expletive). … It’s like us versus them.”

In his complaint to POST, Skeete said training officers are upending desks and tables in the classroom, forcing recruits to reassemble the room on deadline.

He added that trainers dump out the recruits’ private property bags around the classroom, forcing them to forage for their belongings while officers deride them.

Skeete also complained that trainers forced recruits to do slow push-ups to the brink of collapse for the smallest infractions — or sometimes no infraction at all. Trainers called it “stress inoculation.”

Recruits also are forced to do push-ups during their 30-minute lunch break, not allowing them enough time to eat, Skeete said.

Sometimes the harassment begins at the gate to the academy or even in the parking lot, where the private vehicles of recruits are searched for “prohibited” objects. Lunch boxes also are searched for things such as “sugary” items, Skeete wrote. And lockers are raided and emptied onto the floor, for no apparent reason, he said.

Moreover, recruits are sometimes kept up to two hours after the day’s end without any compensation. They often are given homework, written reports that take hours to complete, cutting into their sleep time, Skeete alleged.

“It’s systemic and it’s not right,” he said. “They’re looking for anything to discipline (the recruits).”

Skeete produced documentation showing that his home department in Anaheim also is looking into his complaints.

In his letter to POST, Skeete said he initially complained to academy staff, but was told, “This is the way we’ve always done it.”

“I stood in silence for a while hoping … a reflection and change in culture would eventually occur, unfortunately that did not happen,” Skeete wrote. “The Police Academy is the starting foundation and structure for the Recruits; if the Recruits are denigrated, disgraced, and treated unfairly, the system is just setting them up for failure and potential liability for their agencies and cities for years to come.”

Skeete wondered why POST ordered an internal investigation rather than doing one itself.

Meagan Poulos, a spokesperson for POST, responded: “We’ll see what Golden West gives us and we’ll take it from there.”

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