New officers join the city police force

By Greg Bobinec on January 22, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDgbobinec@lethbridgeherald.com

The Lethbridge Police Service welcomed two additions to their team on Tuesday, following the first Officer Graduation Ceremony of 2021.
Constable Gerrilee Boon and Constable Dayton Pagliericci were sworn in after an accelerated training period, due to both of their previous law enforcement training and experience. Both were graduates from the cadet program in 2019 and served Lethbridge Police Service in the role of Community Peace Officers.
“They were hired as part of our 2019 cadet class, that was the class that was hired to supply both police officers and the new Community Peace Officer (CPO) program, and that class went through the full 22-week training program, and after that they were selected as CPOs,” says Sargent Rick Semenuij, Lethbridge Police Service Training Unit. “Since that time they have been working as so, and when Human Resources department and recruiters started this competition for new hires, they applied and were hired and due to the fact they went through the entire police training, we gave them a refresher in their training.”
Although Const. Boon and Const. Pagliericci had fully received the cadet training, they were still required to have updated training pertaining to the job. Both officers were able to have this unique experience to their own, as anyone in the future in their positions will have to fully complete the police cadet training.
“It is a bit of a unique situation with us, because of the 2019 cadet class and they took over the complete police cadet training, I would say it was a unique situation that they were able to do this officer training,” says Semenuji. “Having said that, our CPOs hired now just undergo any 11 CPO training program, so any of our CPOs hired since 2019, if they get hired as a police officer in the future, they will have to undergo the entire cadet training experience.”
Showing strong values and a strong work ethic as CPO’s, Boon and Pagliericci are said to be good additions to the police force, and the team is excited to welcome them.
“We are very excited and proud to have them both here, the thing about the CPO program is we are able to see them work as a CPO, see their work ethic and make sure their core values are in line with the Services core values,” says Semenuji.
The Lethbridge Police constables were sworn in by Judge Greg Maxwell, who noted them beginning their careers at a time when law enforcement agencies are under greater scrutiny than ever before. He pointed out their role is to keep the peace, which is something Sargent Semenuji says LPS has been improving on in the last couple years.
“We’ve always had training in verbal judo and control tactics training, but within the last couple years, we have been sending members on de-escalating training,” says Semenuji. “We now have members certified to train de-escalation and that is now a standard part of cadet training that wasn’t offered in the past.”
Lethbridge Police Chief, Shahin Mehdizadeh welcomed the graduates to the noble, yet challenging career and advised them to allow the core values of the LPS to guide them into keeping the public safe.

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