29 new Savannah-Chatham Metro Police recruits are ready to join the ranks. They are the newest members to complete the 10 week police academy to become certified Georgia Peace Officers in March. Today's badge pinning was held at the Armstrong Center on Savannah’s Southside. It marks the completion of five additional weeks of training required by metro's patrol school.

We've required all of our instructors to develop lesson plans uh teaching aids with PowerPoint, etc,” says Savannah-Chatham Police Chief Michael Berkow.  “We've done a lot of work to try and do role play-based training and scenarios-based training.”

The officers will begin walking in pairs starting Monday -- learning their beats. The walking beat requirement began last Spring. Since then, more than 90 officers have started their police careers on foot.