New officers welcomed to local police force
Six new police officers completed their training and are now official members of the Lawrence police force. The new members and veterans were recognized for their achievements during a ceremony Friday. Enlarge video
Veteran officers honored
Along with welcoming the new officers, several veterans received awards.
Six new law enforcement officers were officially welcomed Friday night into the Lawrence Police Department during a swearing-in ceremony.
After completing 23 weeks of training, the officers graduated from the department’s 29th basic recruit academy.
They’ll soon begin training in the real world, gun and badge in hand.
“It’s a proud time,” said graduate Jeffrey Holtzman. “A grueling academy.”
Holtzman joined Andrew Fennelly, Ronald Ivener, Adam Lanier, Marc Miller and Stephen Ramsdell in receiving their badges during the graduation ceremony at Maceli’s, 1031 N.H.
Lawrence police have seen many new faces in the last year, with 13 other recruits graduating earlier in the year. With 137 officers now on the police force, the department has just five vacancies, which should be filled next year.
During initial training, the new officers learned how to handle dangerous situations and on Thursday practiced testifying as witnesses in court.
“We came together and worked exceedingly well as a team,” said Ramsdell, the recruit academy’s class president.
During the next three months, the newest officers will undergo further training with experienced field training officers. They’ll then be on their own, assigned to one of three patrol shifts.
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ssakcaj (anonymous) says…
What a suprise... not a woman in the group.
monkeywrench1969 (anonymous) says…
Garcia used to be an Explorers leader for many at the High School. I was wondering why only info on the new guys was put in the story about Garcia getting the Medal of Valor was at the tail end of the video. Garcia has been here forever and I know he does not even know how to swim, but he was right there trying to get the kid out of the river.
monkeywrench1969 (anonymous) says…
Cool they did a full story on the awards
cj123 (anonymous) says…
maybe i should have went to school to become a police officer instead of a nurse! 23 weeks compared to two years?
rdragon (M. Lindeman) says…
ssakcaj (Anonymous) says…
What a suprise… not a woman in the group.
rdragon writes:
Did you ever think maybe there wasn't any that made it? Park your high horse and first figure out if there where any that even applied to get in.
doc1 (anonymous) says…
cj123 You could do that accept all the officers they hire now have 4-year degrees. So if you get a bachelor's degree you could go through the 23 week academy and then go out and babysit with everyone's problems.
Violet (anonymous) says…
Hopefully these new officers will be a bit more responsible than some of the current set, one of whom apparently enjoys trying to intimidate runners by speeding up and trying to run them off the road. Nice!
Slowponder (anonymous) says…
The comment of no surprise and not a woman in the bunch is not an attack. It was just a comment. Does anyone expect Olin to engage in a discussion of his department's selection procedures of employees? That procedure is covered by Dean Woermer's double secret probation.
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
Bladerunner (anonymous) says…
Let me be the first out of all of the comments to say Congratulations to the new graduates. Welcome to Lawrence. May you have long and illustrious careers!
mdrndgtl (anonymous) says…
Let me be the second out of all the comments to say congratulations and also ask you to please try and take it easy on the brothers...
smitty (anonymous) says…
doc1, can/will you provide source that states "all the officers they hire now have 4-year degrees"? The Kansas criteria is a GED, only.
thank you in advance
smitty (anonymous) says…
No link to that data, doc1?