Seventy new recruits who have completed the 22-week training program at the Sheriff’s Training Academy and Regional Services Center are embarking on the next chapter of their law enforcement careers Friday.
At a ceremony at the center on Thursday evening, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Robert Luna, along with chiefs from the graduates’ respective police agencies, presented them with their Peace Officer Standards and Training certificates.
The graduates were then sworn in as peace officers for the state of California.
After a formal inspection of the recruits, Luna congratulated them with an acknowledgement that they have taken on one of the most noble yet challenging paths available to them.
Two of the recruits received special honors: Deputy Erick Lara was honored as the top academic recruit and Deputy Tucker Ford was named the Honor Recruit, which goes to the individual who achieved the highest average score based on academics, leadership qualities, marksmanship and physical performance.
“One day we might find ourselves fighting for our lives. Hurt, bleeding, and exhausted. With everything in our body telling us to stop,” Ford said to his fellow recruits. “But stopping may not be an option. Our life, our partner’s life, or the life of someone we swore to protect may depend on the ability to keep fighting. The goal was to never collect accolades. The goal was to become a great deputy, a dependable partner, better person than the one who walked into this academy on day one. This lesson will stay with me forever.”
The new class includes 41 recruits who spoke a language other than English, including Luganda, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish; 15 were born outside the U.S., hailing from Brazil, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Poland and Uganda.
Twenty-five of the recruits have a bachelor’s degree or higher and the class had five recruits who had previously served in the military.