About

Mission of the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana

The Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana is a regional facility that employs state of the art on site and distance learning training and education offerings for first responders and future public safety leaders. It employs innovative technology and best practices to provide the finest offerings to a 12 County Northeastern Indiana region. Specifically, its mission is as follows:

1. Deliver integrated public safety training to over 5000 regional 1st responders. This training is delivered by a host of local, state and federally certified trainers utilizing the best practices in subject content and instruction delivery.
2. Provide education for future public safety leaders in a dynamic learning environment. This education will be delivered by an educational consortium of 1 regional career program High School (Anthis Career Center), a State level Community College (Ivy Tech) and 3 accredited 4 year Colleges and Universities (Indiana University- Purdue University Fort Wayne, Trine University, and Indiana Tech University). These institutions will not only provide individual courses, certificate and degree programs, but will collaborate on the creation of a new 4 year degree in Emergency Response capitalizing on the strengths of each school's program(s).
3. Employ best practices and innovative technology in public safety training and education. In concert with the Department of Defenses Technology Transfer Program, the Academy will employ the latest 1st responder equipment and serve as a beta test site for new innovations coming out of the national laboratories. Additionally, the synergy of trainer and educator will provide for the fusion of the theoretical and practical applications of 1st responder careers. All of this will be supported by a national guest speaker program highlighting the latest innovations in tactics, techniques, technology and procedures across the emergency response spectrum.

The Public Safety Foundation of Northeast Indiana, Inc. was organized as a not-for-profit in 2002 to support the Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana. Our Board's purpose is also to assist in building regional support, and identifying links between business, academia and First Responder training.

2010 Board Members

Mayor Ted Ellis
City of Bluffton

Mayor Susan Handshoe
City of Kendallville

Senator Robert Meeks
Former Indiana State Senator

Ms. Helen Murray
Indiana Michigan Power

Chancellor Michael Wartell
Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne

The Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana: Education for a Safer Region

The tragic events of September 11th and Hurricane Katrina showed the American people how crucial it is to have highly trained and educated public safety personnel. However, in 2000, before either of those unfortunate days in American history, Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York and Fort Wayne Fire Chief Tim Davie both approached Mayor Graham Richard to discuss building new training academies. Mayor Richard saw the need for new facilities but wanted to integrate training. He had a vision of a new learning paradigm—one where the police and fire departments would not only work together, but also train together.

At about the same time, the city administration was seeking ideas for redeveloping Southtown (a dilapidated shopping mall on the city's southeast side that had become an eyesore.) The initial thought was to turn the old Sears located in the mall into a new safety academy. But after taking a longer look at this proposal, it became apparent that the old Sears building wouldn't have been able to support much of the desired technology for the new safety academy, and a new building would have to be built.

With the highest forms of technology and equipment combined with the emphasis of regional collaboration and cooperation, the Public Safety Academy will become a workforce training model for the region.

Read more: History