Wilmington Police Department welcomes new officers
WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A new class of Wilmington Police Officers were sworn in Friday after completing basic law enforcement training.
14 new officers are officially joining the force in Wilmington.
The recruits were sworn in during a ceremony at the Wilmington Convention Center, where family and friends gathered to watch them take the oath.
After completing 22 weeks of basic training, Wilmington Police Chief Ryan Zuidema told the graduates their real training is just beginning and will continue throughout their careers.
Several members of the class also received special awards during the ceremony, and loved ones had the honor of pinning badges onto the new officers.
One of the new officers, Lee Marshall, says the entire class worked hard to reach this moment and that she’s ready to keep learning and growing every day on the job.
“All of us as a class we put in the hard work and dedication, and I’m blessed and grateful and very appreciative to be a part of the Wilmington Police Department. I think that I’m always going to continue to learn and grow and evolve and be a better police officer every day,” said Marshall.
During those 22 weeks, recruits completed rigorous physical training, along with extensive classroom and academic instruction, in order to successfully graduate from the law enforcement program at Cape Fear Community College.
That hard work and dedication is what is needed in Wilmington, as this new wave of police officers are set to take on the job after a recent rash of crime, such as the Market Street parking deck shooting that occurred last weekend which led to an officer involved shooting. Incidents like these can be tough on law enforcement, so how will the City of Wilmington retain their officers? In a city council meeting in February, City Manager Becky Hawke talked about the vacancies in the police department, which at that time was 17-percent of the nearly 400 positions in the department. To retain their officers, they plan to re-adjust their budget to introduce a higher salary for new officers.
“It would provide a significant leap in being able to be a market leader in this area, that we think would have a significant impact on our ability to recruit and maintain officers, particularly given what we’re asking them to do,” said Hawke. “The workload, the call volume, the types of cases that they’re working, it is a significant commitment to be working in the City of Wilmington, so this would be the impact of the movement in the pay plan.”
It’s a goal for Wilmington Police Chief Ryan Zuidema as well, in a recent interview with WWAY, Zuidema said he has already met with city leaders to discuss leading the region in officer pay, as well as improving resources to retain and recruit staff.
“First and foremost, we’re retaining the folks that we have here making sure that they are fairly compensated and working in a place they want to be,” said Zuidema.
To learn more about being an officer in Wilmington, head to their website.
