The Niagara County Law Enforcement Academy is headed back to its roots.

This September, the academy will return full time to Niagara County Community College, where it was held for nearly 40 years before moving to Niagara University in 2011.

NCCC President William Murabito says the plan is to integrate the academy into college criminal justice programs to help strengthen one another.

Under this plan, students would walk away in two years with an associate’s degree and police academy training.

The sheriff’s office says it would also like to open another facility on the campus for different kinds of training.

“You’ll often hear terms like crisis intervention, de-escalation, active shooting response, this will allow for us to do all of that under one roof in this vision we have for this facility on the campus,” Niagara County Sheriff Mike Filicetti said.

“It’s my vision that with the help of the academy, we’ll strengthen our criminal justice program and well not only be one of the strongest programs in the region, but statewide,” Murabito added.