HOUSTON -- Everyday at the Houston police academy cadets are trained to catch crooks.

So, when they figured out someone was stealing money from the academy's coffee pot fund, detectives went to work. They ended up finding out one of their own was to blame. Leonard A. Kelly was just days from graduating, but has since been fired and kicked out of the academy.

“I'm glad we're getting them out now before they get to be police officers,” said Mary Ramos of the City’s Police Advisory Committee, an ad hoc group that provides advice to the police department.

The firing of a cadet normally wouldn’t be such big news, but Kelly is the sixth one who has been let go recently.

Ramos thinks HPD needs to do more to attract better candidates.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the pay. The pay is really important,” she said.

Starting pay for cadets is about $30,000 dollars a year.   

Many people have applied for jobs as police officers, 300 last Fall alone. But only 11 got the job at a time when about 1,000 officers are needed to fill HPD’s ranks. 

HPD said, despite the shortage of officers, it would not lower its standards to get new cops on the streets.

But 11 News has learned some of the academy's physical requirements have changed. Cadets are not required to do as many pushups and they no longer have to climb walls. 

HPD says it only "tweaked" the requirements and they still meet national guidelines. Still Ramos worries the academy's standards may not be strict enough.

“They are supposed to be protecting the citizens,” she said. “But now it’s going to be that we are afraid of the police officers.”

The cadet who was caught with hand in the coffee jar was fired which means one less cop on the street.

Not such good news when so many new officers are needed.