Elizabethtown College’s new police academy continues to undergo development. This is a follow-up on our last story about the academy as it was announced that Etown would be a host site for a state police program
Timothy Fetzer will oversee the development and implementation of the police academy in collaboration with Director of the Criminal Justice Program Kadee Crandall and the criminal justice program.
Fetzer comes from a long history in law enforcement and public service. He is coming from a 25 year career in the state police, holding numerous positions with the agency including lieutenant, commander of the use of force section within the Bureau of Training and Education at the State Police Academy in Hershey, Pennsylvania and overseeing numerous training programs and community engagement efforts.
Fetzer’s other roles have included serving as a patrol trooper, patrol unit supervisor, background investigator, internal affairs investigator and criminal law instructor.
“I first learned about Elizabethtown College obtaining approval for a new police academy in December 2024 through media reports,” Fetzer said. “ I believed Elizabethtown College was well suited, both from an academic and a geographical standpoint, to create a very successful training program for municipal law enforcement. Through some of my contacts in law enforcement, I became aware of Elizabethtown College posting the director position in mid-January 2025 and I applied for the position a few days after the position was posted.”
Fetzer went on to describe the nature of his role in more detail.
“As the Director of the Police Academy, I am responsible for developing a new municipal police officer basic training program (referred to as ACT 120 training) here at the college,” he said. “Thus far, I have been focused on the logistical aspects of building a new program such as: working with the college’s senior leadership team to identify the spaces on and off campus which will be utilized for training, creating a budget, creating policies, working with the chiefs from municipal police departments and the Elizabethtown College Police Academy External Advisory Board to identify training needs, and working with MPOETC to ensure we follow their regulations as we build the program. In the coming months, I will shift my focus to coordinating the development of the police academy’s curriculum, while identifying and hiring essential staff for the new academy.”
Elizabethtown College is the first entity in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since 1979 to receive approval from the Municipal Police Officers Education and Training Commission (MPOETC) for a new ACT 120 training program. Etown is one of 18 institutions in Pennsylvania that are approved to provide this training to prospective officers.
“I am very much humbled to have the opportunity to develop the first new municipal police officer training program in the Commonwealth in decades,” Fetzer said.“ I look forward to leveraging my background, along with the many resources on campus, and the relationships with local law enforcement in the surrounding communities, to create an innovative training program that combines pedagogical best practices with best practices gleaned from behavioral science research. There is no greater responsibility than to train the next generation of police officers for a career of professional service to our communities and I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to take on that responsibility,” Fetzer said.
