More than 130 cadets at the Connecticut Police Academy who are preparing to hit the streets and for the first time, met with members of the public Tuesday in an effort to gain public trust.

"Once you start to break down those barriers of communication and you start to learn a little bit about each other, I think you have a better respect for what we do," said Karen Boisvert, police academy administrator.

For now, only local police officers are getting this training, but they hope to expand it to state troopers soon.

About a third of the cadets will graduate next week. They will spend 400 hours in field training before they become full-fledged officers.