When you join the POST Academy at UVU, you join a tightly knit organization of committed
individuals serving in communities throughout the state and nation.
When you choose a career in Law Enforcement, you have chosen a job that is interesting
and exciting, offers great medical and retirement benefits, and is one that you and
your family can be proud of.
Our instructors are subject matter experts who hold ranks from officer to chief of police. They practice what they teach and have a professional class and field demeanor.
Lt. Kent Huntsman is one of our lead instructors at UVU Police Academy. He has been with the Provo Police Department for 23 years and has taught at UVU for over 20 years. Huntsman is our instructor for Patrol Concepts, Civil Disputes, Patrol Tactics and teaches about the Crisis Intervention Team. Huntsman has served on the Metro SWAT team for 21 years as an Operator, Team Leader, Sniper Team Leader and Team Commander. Huntsman serves the Provo Police currently as a Motors Team Commander, Patrol Lieutenant and Department Firearms Training Coordinator and Instructor
Sgt. Dan Smith has worked 16-years as a police officer in Utah. He is the lead instructor over the Defensive Tactics and Physical Fitness blocks at the UVU police academy. He has been a Patrol Sargeant for three years, Senior Officer, over a decade as a Field Training Officer, FBI command college graduate, School Resource Officer, Supervisor over Gang Investigations, Patrolman, BJJ BLUE belt, C4CPJJ instructor and has 19 years of boxing experience.
In early 2006, he started teaching in the Defensive Tactics and Physical Fitness blocks for what was then the UVSC Police Academy where he was a graduate in Session 10. Dan has been able to teach, train and coach with some of the greatest coaches locally and across the country for more than a decade. He has also trained in the areas of gangs, mental preparedness, healthy lifestyles, radio communications, law, and instructor development. He is very proud to also be a part of the coaching cadre with C4CPJJ (code 4 combat police Jiu Jitsu). He took over as the Lead instructor of the PT and DT programs in early 2019. Dan leads the 12 member coaching staff that is comprised of men and woman from agencies across the state of Utah who are directly responsible in molding and training new police officers.
Lt. Shane N. Fredrickson is a lieutenant with the Wasatch County Sheriff’s Office with 29 years in law enforcement. He currently commands the Investigations Division in Wasatch County and leads a multi-jurisdictional SWAT team. Lt. Fredrickson spent 24 years of his career working for the Orem Police Department and left that agency at the rank of lieutenant. While working for Orem PD, Lt. Fredrickson spent 17 years assigned to the Metro SWAT team and has been a SWAT instructor for the Countermeasures Tactical Institute for the past 11 years. He has been a POST certified firearms instructor for 18 years and a UVU Law Enforcement Academy firearms instructor for 12 years.
