Diverse crop of new officers set to hit the streets
Latest police grads include former chef, French legionnaire, ex-Eskimo player
A former minesweeper with the French Foreign Legion who served in Afghanistan, Const. Marko Sabanovic was one of the graduates of the Edmonton Police Service’s recruit training class No. 139.
In a plume of pageantry and tradition, 29 police officers including Sabanovic joined the service’s ranks Friday at a ceremony at City Hall.
The new police boots pounding the city streets include a former Edmonton Eskimos player, a head chef, a firefighter and a street outreach worker.
“It’s a goal of the service to recruit a diverse workforce,” said acting police chief Kevin Brezinski. “It’s reflective of the community.”
Sabanovic, who is assigned to the west division, immigrated to Canada from Serbia in 2011 and moved to Edmonton in 2014.
“I always felt the need for public
It’s a goal of the service to recruit a diverse workforce. It’s reflective of the community.
service, as with my previous experience with the French Foreign Legion,” he said.
He said he was one of the soldiers who walked ahead of his infantry division with a metal detector checking for landmines.
Here, Sabanovic said he’s already been policing city streets for about six months.
“It’s quite active out there, but no landmines,” he said with a laugh. “It’s really busy. Lots of work.”
Also among the recruits was the canine team of 2½-year-old Beny, a Belgian Malinois dog, and Const. Daniel Heigh.
Beny was bred in Eastern Europe, and Heigh described him as “really social” with a “lot of energy and good to have around.”
The brown dog with a dark snout caught a diploma in his mouth and wagged his tail as Heigh kept him on a tight leash.
“For him, it’s just another day at the office,” Heigh said.
The general purpose canine team has been operational since September, Heigh said.
Heigh and Beny help other members investigate crimes and collect forensic evidence.
“It’s very rewarding,” he said. A retired Edmonton Eskimos player, Aaron Fiacconi, posed for photographs after his graduation.
“There’s no better job in the world where you can be around so many different types of people on so many different occasions,” he said, describing his excitement at being a police officer.
“I have a career I can work towards for the next 25 years and also help people along the way,” he said.