Crime & Safety
Bucks County Community College Names Municipal Police Academy Director
Chris Willard, who served as Temple University's police academy director for 15 years, will lead the new Bucks County academy.
NEWTOWN, PA — Chris Willard has joined the staff at the Bucks County Community College as the director of the college's newly created municipal police academy.
Willard will provide administrative and operational leadership for the municipal police training academy, ensure compliance with all Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission (MPOETC) regulations, and promote the highest standards of law enforcement training for cadets and certified police officers.
Vice President for Workforce & Strategic Partnerships Tracy Timby said, “With our strong foundation of firefighting, EMT, and paramedic training in Bucks County and beyond, the police academy rounds out our public safety training portfolio and will help to make our communities safer places to live, work, and visit.”
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Willard served as Temple University’s police academy director for 15 years before serving as their public safety department’s director of tactical and professional development for the past three years. Previous experience includes serving as a corporal and training coordinator for the Chester County Sheriff’s Office and as a police officer at Millersville University, Quarryville Police Department, and West Chester University. She also served as a fraud claims adjuster for Allstate Insurance.
"I believe being a director or instructor at a law enforcement academy is not about you; it is about the cadets and providing them with the tools, skills, knowledge, and experiences they need to succeed,” said Willard. “Our responsibility is to prepare them to be the best police officers they can be and to serve their communities with professionalism, integrity, and confidence."
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Willard holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice from West Chester University and a MPOETC Act 120 certificate from Delaware County Community College.
The municipal police academy will offer the state’s Act 120 basic police officer training, a comprehensive, mandatory, 919-hour program designed to prepare an individual for certification to become a police officer within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The academy will be housed at the college’s Newtown Campus, where there is ample classroom space and facilities.
Applications for the police academy will start to be accepted in the spring with the inaugural class slated to begin August 2027.
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