The graduates are moving on to law enforcement careers throughout the region.
SPRINGFIELD – Thirty-five newly-minted Western Massachusetts police officers received their badges Friday morning during the 47th annual Recruit Officer Course graduation ceremony at Springfield Technical Community College.
The graduates of the Western Massachusetts Academy are moving on to law enforcement careers throughout the region. Departments gaining new officers include Pittsfield, Northampton, Ware, Athol, Longmeadow and many others.
“I can certainly say you are all in for the ride of your life,” said Adams Police Chief Donald Poirot.
Graduates, both during the ceremony and after, spoke of the rigors of the training and the camaraderie that class members formed with each, their instructors and mentors. “To get here we have experienced a lot,” said graduate and class president Mustafa Thompson, now an Agawam police officer. “The 47th at times looked down for the count, yet somebody from the group would always bring us up.”
“I am just overjoyed that it’s al over,” said Emily Rios, who starts on the dogwatch shift with the Springfield Police Department next Thursday. “I think everyone really deserved it and we all worked really hard.”
The stark realities of the world that the graduates are poised to enter was evoked a number of times through the ceremony by the mention of the late Officer Kevin Ambrose, fatally gunned down less than three weeks while responding to a domestic incident just a few miles away.
Near the start of the ceremony, a bagpiper played Amazing Grace in honor of Ambrose and the 45 other law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the United States since the start of the year.
“This is probably the proudest moment of my life,” said graduate Johnny A. Jusino Jr., who received his badge from his father, and now fellow Chicopee police officer, Johnny A. Jusino Sr. “The training was definitely intense.”
Graduate Michael Sousa, now an East Longmeadow police officer, received his badge from his grandfather, Americo Sousa, a retired colonel with the state police.
William P. Nagle, clerk magistration for the Eastern Hampshire District Court in Belchertown served as keynote speaker. His son, Kasey Nagle, was one of the graduates and is embarking on his career with the Amherst Police Department.
“Today, once you put on that badge, the public will expect you to have all the answers, “ said Nagle, adding that offieers often assume the role of street-side psychologists or marriage counselors.
Northampton Police Sgt. Robert Powers, also a staff instructor, urged the graduates to hew to the straight and narrow in both their private and proffessional lives.
“Doing the right thing is not always the easiest, but it is the easiest to live with,” Powers said.