MILFORD - The small town of Milford recently received confirmation of what it already knew - small town or not, Barney Fife has no place on its police officer roster.

Deputy Marshall James Marshall recently returned from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and to the Milford Police Department's pleasure, finished in the top 5 percent of his class academically.

Marshall, a first-year officer and former reservist, attended the academy as all full-time police officers must during his first full year of service. During his time at the academy, he completed 16 different subject area tests and maintained a grade point average of 97.1 percent. The highest scoring officer at the academy and No. 1 in the class had a GPA of 98 percent, less than 1 percent higher than Marshall's.

Attending the academy with Marshall were 103 officers from around the state, with 100 graduating after the 15 weeks of training. During those 15 weeks, Marshall said he studied "a wide range of things," with two weeks spent on criminal law, one week on traffic law and time to study physical tactics and fire arms training, among many other things.

"Mixed in there with all of that is a wide assortment of other classes," Marshall said.

But the best part of law enforcement academy? For Marshall, the answer seemed easy - emergency vehicle operations.

"You get to drive like you've never driven before," Marshall said of the training where officers operate vehicles in simulated emergency police situations.

A 1994 Warsaw Community High School graduate, Marshall has lived in and around Kosciusko County since he was a small boy. In June 2002, he started working as a reserve police officer at MPD after a friend encouraged him to pursue his goal of becoming a police officer.

At the time, Marshall was working full time and was a member of the Army National Guard.ÊAccording to him, he had always thought about law enforcement but with his busy schedule, wasn't sure where to start.

"A friend told me about the reserves as a way to explore the career," Marshall said. "I instantly fell in love with it. They tell us at the academy, 'you don't choose law enforcement, it chooses you,' and I think that's probably correct."

Marshall has no plans to leave the field and said his goal is to be an officer as long as he is "physically capable."

"I want to do as much as I can," Marshall said. "It's a great career; it's one where you never stop learning. The day you stop learning is the day you should retire."

Milford Town Marshall Dave Hobbs told the town council Monday that Marshall was an asset to the department, jokingly calling him the "brains."

"He reflects well upon our department," Hobbs said. "He's proof that we're getting the really good young officers here." [[In-content Ad]]