Agencies Employ NCC’s 40th Law Enforcement Training Academy Graduates
“You are part of a special group. Only three out of 20 people who apply to be a police officer actually become one. This job is a calling. You should be proud,” Rocky Mount Police Department Lieutenant Larry Neal Boone told Nash Community College’s newest crop of heroes. Boone addressed the Fortieth Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) Academy at NCC sharing wisdom from his own career experiences with the eleven graduates, “Be an ambassador for your department. Things that you say or do will represent your department. We are in the service business both to the public at large and to those in our care and custody.”
All of the recent graduates have been hired, or are currently in the process of being hired, for law enforcement roles within local and state agencies. “You have the obligation to the public to keep them safe: to treat them fair, honest and in an even-handed manner regardless of how they treat you. The positions you and I hold are not positions of privilege, but of service.”
Cadets in NCC’s BLET program participate in rigorous physical and classroom state commission mandated topics and methods of instruction covering topics related to legal, criminal, juvenile, civil, traffic, investigative, patrol, custody, court procedures, emergency responses, ethics, community relations and more during the twenty-seven week training. To graduate, students successfully completed and passed all units of study, including the certification examination mandated by the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission. “I ask you to maintain the sense of duty, dignity and discipline you feel today. Keep your head high, your boots shined and your badge untarnished,” Boone said.
Graduates of NCC’s Fortieth Basic Law Enforcement Training Academy pictured on the front row, from left: Keith Lawrence of Rocky Mount, Jordan Stone of Middlesex, Stephanie Pardo of Rocky Mount, Christian Grant of Rocky Mount and Austin Holland of Tarboro. Back row, from left: Jessie Girard of Middlesex, Bryon Varnell of Rocky Mount, Baltazar Rodriguez of Bailey, Danny Dupree of Nashville, Bradley Boone of Nashville and Damien Whitaker of Rocky Mount. Graduates from the class have recently been offered positions with: Nashville Police Department, Scotland Neck Police Department and Nash County Sheriff’s Office.
Nash Community College’s next Basic Law Enforcement Training academy will be offered as a day academy beginning August 17, 2015. For more information about the program, contact BLET Coordinator Adam Gelo at 252-451-8298 or agelo@nashcc.edu. Click here to watch the graduation ceremony online.
