Southwest Michigan is getting three new Michigan State Police troopers now that the 140th Trooper Recruit School has held its graduation. The school graduated 50 recruits this week. The Paw Paw MSP post will get two of the graduates, while the Niles post will get one. Paw Paw’s new troopers are Thomas Jorgensen of Three Rivers and Brett Robertson of Bangor. The trooper for Niles is Justin Van Nuil of Holland. Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the keynote speaker at the recruit school’s graduation. The 140th Trooper Recruit School began on Sunday, August 22, 2021, with 74 prospective troopers, at the MSP Training Academy in Lansing. Recruits received training in patrol techniques, report writing, ethics, cultural diversity and implicit bias, decision making, leadership, first aid, criminal law, crime scene processing, firearms, water safety, defensive tactics, and precision driving. The new graduates now go into 12 weeks of field training at their posts.
