Fourteen Roanoke police recruits became rookie officers Friday, making history even before responding to their first call.
With the graduation of the 36th Basic Police Academy, the seven blacks and seven whites became the most racially mixed class ever to enter the Roanoke Police Department – nearly doubling the number of minorities on the 244-member force.
Next week the new officers will begin responding to calls of burglaries, fights and shootings. It was a call from the community for a more diverse police force that brought them together, 3 1/2 months ago, to begin training.
More than 150 friends, family members, police officers and citizens crowded into City Council chambers Friday to see the culmination of the recruits’ 14-week training program that tested and retested them mentally, physically and emotionally.
The guest speaker was Mayor Noel Taylor, who 18 months ago responded to tension between blacks and police by creating a task force that ultimately pushed for a police department more reflective of the community it serves.
“We have made great strides in the past year . . . and allayed fears of inequality,” Taylor said.
“You will change the face of this city,” he told the class. “You will gradually mold this community by the stance that you take, as you take the mission of peace forward.”
Taylor said the public perception of police may have been tainted in recent years by negative publicity both nationally and locally. “Maybe not enough people are aware of the wonderful deeds you do,” he said.
Those deeds have been the topics of instruction for the past 14 weeks at the Police Academy. The class spent more than 450 hours in the classroom studying hundreds of topics, as well as heading each day to the shooting range for rigorous physical training.
But as class president Barry Meek reminded the class in his address, “the knowledge alone will not make us good police officers.”
“We must continue learning,” he said. “Every incident, every person, can teach us something.”
That won’t always be easy, as the recruits go from theoretical classroom situations to hands-on experience with Roanoke’s criminal population and a side of life most people never want to see.
But in asking the class of recruits to “hold on to the passion we have for this job,” Meek reminded them of statements they each made for a newspaper story as they began training in late October.
Their goals then were “somewhat idealistic,” Meek remembered: to help people, to be a role model, to protect and to serve, to make a difference.
“Keep those idealistic goals in the back of your mind when it comes to making difficult decisions, and use those principles to guide you,” he said.
For this class, making it to graduation was perhaps a tougher job than in years past. Other classes have come and gone without the intense public scrutiny that this one received.
“When I first talked to them, they were well aware of the fact that some of them might not be here today,” Police Chief M. David Hooper said. “They had to work very hard to live up to what they felt the expectations of them were.”
Those expectations may remain when the new officers begin dealing with the public next week. And the stress will certainly remain as they begin one-year probationary periods under the supervision of field-training officers.
But if any of that was on the minds of the new police officers Friday, it was overshadowed by celebration.
Officer Calvin Tapp was so filled with pride that it almost seemed his silver badge might pop off. “I’m ready for anything that comes my way,” Tapp said.
Minutes earlier, the class of 18 recruits – four from Roanoke County – had received their diplomas from the Department of Criminal Justice Services.
As the class stood at attention in two rows – backs stiff, chins high, arms locked – Sgt. J.W. Slusher ended the ceremony by giving them their final orders.
“Police Academy,” Slusher barked, “Dismissed.”