December 3, 2025 • 10 mins
Dane Stausing shares how hands-on training at the Police Academy prepares recruits for real-world law enforcement, highlights career outcomes, and details his journey from officer to academy director.
Dane Stausing, a captain with the university police and director of the Police Academy, discusses his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement and the transition to his current role after teaching criminal justice. He emphasizes the importance of practical experience in training new recruits, highlighting hands-on learning methods like first responder training, driving practice, and firearm simulations.Dane recounts his initial motivation to join law enforcement after a personal tragedy involving drugs, shifting from his original aspiration to be a firefighter. He outlines current goals for the Academy, such as providing robust training, expanding continuing education for local officers, and fostering relationships with local law enforcement agencies.He also notes the increasing effectiveness for hands-on training and the successful employment rate of graduates from the Academy, mentioning that most current cadets have already secured positions in various police departments. Dane expresses pride in the Academy’s strong reputation for producing competent recruits.
Dane Stausing, a captain with the university police and director of the Police Academy, discusses his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement and the transition to his current role after teaching criminal justice. He emphasizes the importance of practical experience in training new recruits, highlighting hands-on learning methods like first responder training, driving practice, and firearm simulations.Dane recounts his initial motivation to join law enforcement after a personal tragedy involving drugs, shifting from his original aspiration to be a firefighter. He outlines current goals for the Academy, such as providing robust training, expanding continuing education for local officers, and fostering relationships with local law enforcement agencies.He also notes the increasing effectiveness for hands-on training and the successful employment rate of graduates from the Academy, mentioning that most current cadets have already secured positions in various police departments. Dane expresses pride in the Academy’s strong reputation for producing competent recruits.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome back to Arrow on the air. In this episode,
we have a conversation with Dane Stousing, the director of
the Police Academy at SIMO. Could you go ahead and
introduce yourself for me please.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My name's Dane Stousing. I'm a captain with the University
Police and then the director of the Police Academy.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Okay, welcome in. I guess my first question is what
kind of led you to this position.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I've been in law enforcement for almost thirty years and
I kind of got out of it, retired after a
little over twenty something to teach criminal justice at the
Career and Technology Center here in Cape and I did
that for about six years, and then this opening came
up at the Academy and I got a call about,
you know, if I was interested in it, and I was,
(00:47):
so I applied and I got the position. And that's
one thing. From the law enforcement to teaching it, it's
just been something I like to do to show the
new recruits, newer officers, you know, show them the knowledge
and try to train them as best as we can
because it is getting so more dangerous out on the
streets than it was when I first started.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Do you think that having that field and actual career
experience really enriches their kind of learning environment.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I do, and I think they actually pay more attention
to you you know some I think some of them,
you know, if they think just someone's again kind of like, oh,
here's a bunch of power points, or you're gonna learn
off of it, here's this right, Okay. I can teach
them that, but then they learn it, you know, hear
about a real experience, how it's actually really done. How
and you can show them anything from evidence work to
(01:38):
interrogations to anything like that, and they actually then can
can be interested more and actually see how they're gonna
use what they're learning actually than just getting it and
just keeping it in their head.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I know, the university has a really big emphasis on
that applied learning. What kind of hands on learning can
they expect from the program?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
We do quite a bit. Like this week actually they're
doing first responder training, which is kind of nice because
they're starting to put in kind of more of a
combat medic part of it too. So the students are
learning anything from the basic on you know, stopping a wound,
you know, a bleeding wound, to CPR to what's called
now stop the bleed on using tourniquits and packing a wound.
(02:23):
We do, you know, hands on with actual driving. We
go went down to the airport last week and the
cadets were driving around, you know, around cones and everything.
They had a lot of fun. All the firearms from handgun, shotgun, patrol,
rifle defense tactics. We do a lot of that. We
(02:43):
have some simulators at the academy, some firearm ones and
driving so they can use those also. And then we
even have like some dwi's stuff. They come in and practice,
you know, Dwi's room clearing, traffic stops, all kinds of
different things. So they get they actually get out and
(03:04):
get to do quite a bit besides just being in
the classroom.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
That's awesome. So what what kind of led you towards
your career in law?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I had actually grown up wanted to be a fireman.
Actually I lived just about forty five minutes from Saint Louis,
and I was going to go to Saint Louis and
be a fireman. And then actually my brother's best friend
killed himself due to drugs, and after that I decided, nope,
I was going to be a cop and try to
get drugs off the street as much as I could,
and so that's what led me to it. I went
to a community college from back home, got my associates
(03:34):
degree there in criminal justice, transferred down to Simo because
my parents were originally from Cape and had family down here,
so I came down here and then I just you know,
joined the police academy down here. Also because at the time,
doctor Brown was the head of the criminal justice department
and so but he was also running the police academy.
So he told me about the police Academy and said,
(03:55):
you know, you really need to do this. So I
went ahead and did, and here I am thirty years later.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I always love to hear stories about why people are
inspired to do the things that they do. So you
mentioned your work in trying to get drugs off the street.
How what's that process like experience?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
A lot of it comes from when I first started,
I really didn't know much, you know, I knew what
it was, of course, but I didn't know how to
get it. The first time I ever got methamphetamine, it's
not like you see now where it's like a real white,
kind of clear crystal the stuff. The first myth I
ever got off the streets was was brown, you know,
and so and that was just again that long ago.
(04:33):
That's how they made it. And it sounds bad, but
if it was brown or kind of dark color, it
was bad. It wasn't as pure. Right now, if it's
like that white more, it's it's pure. And so so
just did that, and a couple of guys when I
started at Cape City years ago kind of took me
under their wing and showed me a lot of the
(04:54):
drug stuff and what I needed to do. So I
followed them and learned a lot from them too. So
just that experience and stopping cars, making contact with people,
being able to talk, that's a big thing. Again, that
doesn't matter if it's thirty years ago or now. If
as an officer, you've got to know how to talk
to anybody. If it's from trying to get drugs off somebody,
or a vehicle stop, or a domestic or someone that's
(05:17):
emotionally disturbed, you've got to know how to talk to
people that would be.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think the most interesting part to me is the
kind of social skills that are required. Yes, you have,
especially in these like de escalations.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Right, and that's you know Missouri Post which is the
state standards of training for law enforcement. They've started doing
that more on the de escalation, implicit bias, racial profiling,
They're kind of combining all that because there is so
much out there now and we are dealing with so
many more emotionally disturbed people that aren't you know, they're
(05:51):
not committing crimes, but we're actually having to deal with them.
And then once we you know, approach them, they can
you know, you know, make that situation worse or it
can make it better, just depending and it all comes
back on how you can talk to people.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I was going to ask as specifically as the new head,
what are some of the goals you have in mind
for the program?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Some major goals again obviously to you know, get the
best recruits out there. We can get them the best training.
I've brought in a lot of really good instructors and
some of have you know, stayed that was here also,
but I brought in some more too, so the students
can have more variety of instructors, ones with a lot
of experience, some wanting to do that. And then two,
(06:32):
one big thing that we're wanting to do is continuing
ed for law enforcement. We have to have twenty four
hours a year required by the state for continuing education,
and so Southeast Missouri doesn't offer a lot of that.
And when we have to go for training, you hear
of officers going to Saint Louis, Springfield, other states even
sometimes for training, when we could be doing it right here.
(06:54):
We have a police academy, why can't we do it here?
So we're trying to get it where. We're developing a
lot more. It's called CLEE, but basically continuing education hours
and classes so local law enforcement can stay local and
not have to travel as far to go somewhere for training.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Some of the laws that might be different in say
like Illinois or somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, and that's one issue. You know, when you do
send someone over there, because they do the same thing too,
you know they'll send the next Police Academy class. Actually
the next class that's starting in January. I have one
guy from Tennessee and one guy from Chicago that's actually
coming down. The one from Chicago's wanting to stay in
the area. The one from Tennessee is actually going back
to Tennessee once he gets it. But we're actually closer
(07:36):
than the any academies in Tennessee, and Tennessee recognizes Missouri's
post training, so he can come here get training and
then go back to Tennessee and work.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's super interesting. I do always like to open up
the floor to my guests. Is there anything about the academy,
about your experience that you'd just like to note or
talk about?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Just that The main thing is getting these cadets what
they need, the hands on I had a meeting earlier
today with some higher ups, and that's one thing we
were talking about from these other agencies is getting them
more hands on training, you know, not just again, not
just book or you know, death by PowerPoint as they
call it. You know, get them the training they need
first by the lecturing and all that, yes, obviously, but
(08:17):
then going to that next step and doing the hands
on from again, the defense tactics, the talking. You know,
with our simulators, even though they're called firearm simulators, you
can learn so much in those on how to talk
to people. Coming from the CTC, I had high schoolers,
so there it wasn't as much teaching them of when
to shoot or not shoot. It was more getting them
(08:37):
to talk to people because a lot of the high
schoolers nowadays they don't want to talk now, you know,
so trying to get them to talk and do that.
So getting them the best hands on training that they
can and the opportunities from the training for like I
was saying about continuing education for officers already and then
also too for officers to find jobs. Right now, we
have twenty six cadets in the class. Twenty five of
(08:59):
the twenty six are spoken for, meaning they basically already
have a job at an agency. And I have other
agencies contact me wanting to come and try to recruit
our officers. We've got a good reputation for that from
over the years. Ballwin Police Department up in Saint Louis.
They actually called me yesterday wanting to come down once
the academy class starts and try to recruit some officers.
(09:21):
So we do get a lot of that, and we
get them from Saint Louis. Overland Park up by Kansas
City contacted me about a month ago about coming and
talking to some recruits. Saint Louis County has come down,
and then other agencies from the North area that come
down even down here to get our recruits. Just because
I'm glad to say it, but we do have good
recruits that we turn out so great.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Thank you. I'm wait out of time for today, no problem.
Thank you so much for coming in the studio with
me today.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Thank you for listening to this episode of A Row
on the air. I'm your host, Ella Tinsley, and I
will see you next time.
Welcome back to Arrow on the air. In this episode,
we have a conversation with Dane Stousing, the director of
the Police Academy at SIMO. Could you go ahead and
introduce yourself for me please.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
My name's Dane Stousing. I'm a captain with the University
Police and then the director of the Police Academy.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Okay, welcome in. I guess my first question is what
kind of led you to this position.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
I've been in law enforcement for almost thirty years and
I kind of got out of it, retired after a
little over twenty something to teach criminal justice at the
Career and Technology Center here in Cape and I did
that for about six years, and then this opening came
up at the Academy and I got a call about,
you know, if I was interested in it, and I was,
(00:47):
so I applied and I got the position. And that's
one thing. From the law enforcement to teaching it, it's
just been something I like to do to show the
new recruits, newer officers, you know, show them the knowledge
and try to train them as best as we can
because it is getting so more dangerous out on the
streets than it was when I first started.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Do you think that having that field and actual career
experience really enriches their kind of learning environment.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
I do, and I think they actually pay more attention
to you you know some I think some of them,
you know, if they think just someone's again kind of like, oh,
here's a bunch of power points, or you're gonna learn
off of it, here's this right, Okay. I can teach
them that, but then they learn it, you know, hear
about a real experience, how it's actually really done. How
and you can show them anything from evidence work to
(01:38):
interrogations to anything like that, and they actually then can
can be interested more and actually see how they're gonna
use what they're learning actually than just getting it and
just keeping it in their head.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
I know, the university has a really big emphasis on
that applied learning. What kind of hands on learning can
they expect from the program?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
We do quite a bit. Like this week actually they're
doing first responder training, which is kind of nice because
they're starting to put in kind of more of a
combat medic part of it too. So the students are
learning anything from the basic on you know, stopping a wound,
you know, a bleeding wound, to CPR to what's called
now stop the bleed on using tourniquits and packing a wound.
(02:23):
We do, you know, hands on with actual driving. We
go went down to the airport last week and the
cadets were driving around, you know, around cones and everything.
They had a lot of fun. All the firearms from handgun, shotgun, patrol,
rifle defense tactics. We do a lot of that. We
(02:43):
have some simulators at the academy, some firearm ones and
driving so they can use those also. And then we
even have like some dwi's stuff. They come in and practice,
you know, Dwi's room clearing, traffic stops, all kinds of
different things. So they get they actually get out and
(03:04):
get to do quite a bit besides just being in
the classroom.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
That's awesome. So what what kind of led you towards
your career in law?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I had actually grown up wanted to be a fireman.
Actually I lived just about forty five minutes from Saint Louis,
and I was going to go to Saint Louis and
be a fireman. And then actually my brother's best friend
killed himself due to drugs, and after that I decided, nope,
I was going to be a cop and try to
get drugs off the street as much as I could,
and so that's what led me to it. I went
to a community college from back home, got my associates
(03:34):
degree there in criminal justice, transferred down to Simo because
my parents were originally from Cape and had family down here,
so I came down here and then I just you know,
joined the police academy down here. Also because at the time,
doctor Brown was the head of the criminal justice department
and so but he was also running the police academy.
So he told me about the police Academy and said,
(03:55):
you know, you really need to do this. So I
went ahead and did, and here I am thirty years later.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
I always love to hear stories about why people are
inspired to do the things that they do. So you
mentioned your work in trying to get drugs off the street.
How what's that process like experience?
Speaker 2 (04:12):
A lot of it comes from when I first started,
I really didn't know much, you know, I knew what
it was, of course, but I didn't know how to
get it. The first time I ever got methamphetamine, it's
not like you see now where it's like a real white,
kind of clear crystal the stuff. The first myth I
ever got off the streets was was brown, you know,
and so and that was just again that long ago.
(04:33):
That's how they made it. And it sounds bad, but
if it was brown or kind of dark color, it
was bad. It wasn't as pure. Right now, if it's
like that white more, it's it's pure. And so so
just did that, and a couple of guys when I
started at Cape City years ago kind of took me
under their wing and showed me a lot of the
(04:54):
drug stuff and what I needed to do. So I
followed them and learned a lot from them too. So
just that experience and stopping cars, making contact with people,
being able to talk, that's a big thing. Again, that
doesn't matter if it's thirty years ago or now. If
as an officer, you've got to know how to talk
to anybody. If it's from trying to get drugs off somebody,
or a vehicle stop, or a domestic or someone that's
(05:17):
emotionally disturbed, you've got to know how to talk to
people that would be.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I think the most interesting part to me is the
kind of social skills that are required. Yes, you have,
especially in these like de escalations.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Right, and that's you know Missouri Post which is the
state standards of training for law enforcement. They've started doing
that more on the de escalation, implicit bias, racial profiling,
They're kind of combining all that because there is so
much out there now and we are dealing with so
many more emotionally disturbed people that aren't you know, they're
(05:51):
not committing crimes, but we're actually having to deal with them.
And then once we you know, approach them, they can
you know, you know, make that situation worse or it
can make it better, just depending and it all comes
back on how you can talk to people.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I was going to ask as specifically as the new head,
what are some of the goals you have in mind
for the program?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Some major goals again obviously to you know, get the
best recruits out there. We can get them the best training.
I've brought in a lot of really good instructors and
some of have you know, stayed that was here also,
but I brought in some more too, so the students
can have more variety of instructors, ones with a lot
of experience, some wanting to do that. And then two,
(06:32):
one big thing that we're wanting to do is continuing
ed for law enforcement. We have to have twenty four
hours a year required by the state for continuing education,
and so Southeast Missouri doesn't offer a lot of that.
And when we have to go for training, you hear
of officers going to Saint Louis, Springfield, other states even
sometimes for training, when we could be doing it right here.
(06:54):
We have a police academy, why can't we do it here?
So we're trying to get it where. We're developing a
lot more. It's called CLEE, but basically continuing education hours
and classes so local law enforcement can stay local and
not have to travel as far to go somewhere for training.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Some of the laws that might be different in say
like Illinois or somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, and that's one issue. You know, when you do
send someone over there, because they do the same thing too,
you know they'll send the next Police Academy class. Actually
the next class that's starting in January. I have one
guy from Tennessee and one guy from Chicago that's actually
coming down. The one from Chicago's wanting to stay in
the area. The one from Tennessee is actually going back
to Tennessee once he gets it. But we're actually closer
(07:36):
than the any academies in Tennessee, and Tennessee recognizes Missouri's
post training, so he can come here get training and
then go back to Tennessee and work.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
That's super interesting. I do always like to open up
the floor to my guests. Is there anything about the academy,
about your experience that you'd just like to note or
talk about?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Just that The main thing is getting these cadets what
they need, the hands on I had a meeting earlier
today with some higher ups, and that's one thing we
were talking about from these other agencies is getting them
more hands on training, you know, not just again, not
just book or you know, death by PowerPoint as they
call it. You know, get them the training they need
first by the lecturing and all that, yes, obviously, but
(08:17):
then going to that next step and doing the hands
on from again, the defense tactics, the talking. You know,
with our simulators, even though they're called firearm simulators, you
can learn so much in those on how to talk
to people. Coming from the CTC, I had high schoolers,
so there it wasn't as much teaching them of when
to shoot or not shoot. It was more getting them
(08:37):
to talk to people because a lot of the high
schoolers nowadays they don't want to talk now, you know,
so trying to get them to talk and do that.
So getting them the best hands on training that they
can and the opportunities from the training for like I
was saying about continuing education for officers already and then
also too for officers to find jobs. Right now, we
have twenty six cadets in the class. Twenty five of
(08:59):
the twenty six are spoken for, meaning they basically already
have a job at an agency. And I have other
agencies contact me wanting to come and try to recruit
our officers. We've got a good reputation for that from
over the years. Ballwin Police Department up in Saint Louis.
They actually called me yesterday wanting to come down once
the academy class starts and try to recruit some officers.
(09:21):
So we do get a lot of that, and we
get them from Saint Louis. Overland Park up by Kansas
City contacted me about a month ago about coming and
talking to some recruits. Saint Louis County has come down,
and then other agencies from the North area that come
down even down here to get our recruits. Just because
I'm glad to say it, but we do have good
recruits that we turn out so great.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Thank you. I'm wait out of time for today, no problem.
Thank you so much for coming in the studio with
me today.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Thank you for listening to this episode of A Row
on the air. I'm your host, Ella Tinsley, and I
will see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.