UTICA – Day one is in the books for the 29 new police recruits at the Mohawk Valley Police Academy in Utica.

The 29 men and women come from the Utica Police Department, the Rome Police Department, the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, and the DeWitt, Manlius, Oswego and SUNY Oswego police departments.

The local police academy is a joint effort between the Utica Police Department, the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office and Mohawk Valley Community College. Instructors at the academy say these new recruits have already accomplished a lot to get to this point.

"They get on the civil-service list, they have to pass the agility, that's how you get through step one,” said Lt. Christine Reilly of the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office. “And then it's a background, it's a psychological, a polygraph for most agencies. So it's pretty rigorous before they make it to here."

This class is scheduled to graduate in November, and each new officer will then join the ranks of their respective departments.