The police academy in San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo León, celebrated its largest graduating class ever, with 100 cadets becoming officers on Wednesday.

In addition to its record size, the graduating class stands out for the education levels among the officers, 74 of whom have bachelor’s or postgraduate degrees in fields such as criminology, psychology, law or engineering.

As cadets, they completed 1,080 hours of training and study, a higher standard than the one mandated by the National Security System (Sesnsp).

San Pedro Police Chief Gerardo Escamilla Vargas said the cadets had to pass 48 subjects in six months of study and training in order to graduate. Subjects included the legitimate use of force, crime prevention and victim services.

Almost a third of the graduates were women.

The graduates will be the best paid in the force’s history, earning 20,000 pesos (US $1,028) a month, the newspaper Milenio reported.

During the graduation ceremony, the graduates demonstrated riot squad tactics, blindfolded arming and disarming of weapons and victim services techniques.

Source: Milenio (sp)