Westover hosts Springfield Police Academy graduation

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Andre Bowser
  • 439th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. --  As newly sworn-in police officers of three neighboring cities, the graduating cadets stood before family, friends and fellow officers in the Base Hangar, May 19, and learned the subtle difference between law enforcement officers and police officers.

Before they were sworn in, civic leaders admonished the cadets to always remember the subtle difference.

They told 37 cadets that they must be more than just law enforcement officers, who solely concern themselves with seeing that laws aren't broken. As police officers, they are public servants whose jobs extend to working with the communities they serve and acting as "the frontline of civility out there in society," said Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno.

Civic and police leaders from Holyoke and East Longmeadow--the two other cities slated to receive cadets from the graduating class--joined the mayor.

"You have been given a golden opportunity to serve the public trust," Mayor Sarno said. "Be brave and also be compassionate."

The class president, Thomas Sullivan, said he and his fellow cadets were lucky to be among those chosen from such a wide pool of candidates to become police officers. Sullivan said thousands applied for the police officer positions in Springfield, Holyoke and East Longmeadow, but only a select few were chosen.

"We are blessed," he said to his class.

The list of special guests that attended the graduation read like a local who's who directory: Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, Holyoke Mayor Elaine Pluta, Holyoke Interim Police Chief Frederick Seklecki, as well as Westover leadership including Vice Wing Commander Col. John Healy, among others.

Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet commented on the caliber of training the cadets had received.

"Your training has been rigorous and thorough," he said, adding that the training was the easy part. "The challenges ahead: daunting; the dangers: ominous."

Commissioner Fitchet said the days, weeks, months and years ahead would be the real test of the new police officers. "I challenge you today to live up to the oath that your are about to take: always perform your duty with honor," he said.

As the cadets took the oath in front of about 500 family, friends and fellow uniformed members in the audience, they repeated the respective oaths of the three cities they would serve: Springfield, Holyoke and East Longmeadow.

Leadership from the three cities emphasized that crime does not respect city lines, and that the new police officers would likely be required to someday call on each other to fight crime.

The Springfield Police Academy graduating class includes the following cadets: Victor Allder, Dorota Beben, Jonathan Blanchard, Dayaliz Cruz, Timothy Driscoll, Joseph Emiterio, Robert Gayle, Michael Ingalls, Thomas Leahy, Charles Monfett, Denise Olivo, Jeffrey Ortiz, Keola Perry, Joel E. Reyes, Matthew Rief, Juan Rodriguez, Ivan V. Rosas, Juan Taveras, John Wajdula, Igor Basovskiy, Eric Blair, Luke Cournoyer, Brendan Curran, Michael Dyer, Matthew Garcia, Edwin Hernandez, William Laporte, Francisco Luna, Hector Morales, Alex Ortiz, Jeffrey Pelletier, Daniel Quigley, Naomi Reyes, Emmanuel Rivera, Felix Romero, Thomas Sullivan and Jonathan Torres.