Badges are pinned to uniforms of graduating LBPD recruits by their loved ones. Photos by Gisela Merino.
This week, Long Beach will witness an influx of 40 new police officers and 30 firefighters fresh out of their respective academies, the first major additions to both agencies after years of staff losses due to city-wide budget cuts.
The Long Beach Police Department ushered in 40 new Long Beach officers at the graduation of academy class number 86, held Thursday at the Terrace Theater. In the first graduate ceremony of new police officers since 2009, when the Department numbers began dropping. Prior to the graduation, there were 820 budgeted, sworn police officers, down from a high of 1020 in 2008.
The Long Beach Fire Department also expects to commence 30 recruits this Saturday during its Drill School Graduation at the Long Beach Fire and Training Center. The ceremony will include demonstrations for the recruits, including live fire fighting exercises and vehicle extractions.
According to Class 86 President Eric McGowan, training began on May 30 with 50 new recruits. Although some held a military background, the police hopefuls also included construction workers, special needs educators, dog walkers and more. Jason Wilcoxen was a FedEx worker before he decided to become a police officer.
“It’s exciting to finally get out there, but it will be a little weird,” Wilcoxen said. “There’s a gap between the academy and real life. The Academy’s sort of a sterile environment.”
Recruits bow their heads during an invocation by Pastor Gavin Purdy.
At Thursday’s LBPD graduation ceremony, the class stood in formation on stage as Chief Jim McDonnell gave encouraging, yet haunting wisdom before the graduates.
“I would argue that policing in an urban environment is the hardest job,” McDonnell told the new officers. “You have to do so much with such little information…You’re going to find that after today, you can’t go back to the way you were. You’ll never be the same again.”
According to McDonnell, out of approximately 5,000 applicants received for next year’s Academy, only around 50 were accepted. Likewise, the fire academy received 4,000 applications for 2014 and only 30 will be selected.
The Drill School Graduation on Saturday 11AM is open to the public. It will be held at the Long Beach Fire Training Center at 2249 Argonne. Parking will be available at the Tucker School playground neighboring the Training Center.
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