Five new officers sworn into Woonsocket Police Dept.
WOONSOCKET – With little fanfare, five new police officers were sworn in as members of the Woonsocket Police Department this month after graduating from the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy.
They were Jonathan Condon, Michael Frye, Hank Leitzke, Joshua Lindsey and Christopher Waite. They were administered the oath of duty in the WPD’s roll call room – appropriately socially-distanced and wearing face masks – on May 1, according to a joint statement from Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, Police Chief Thomas F. Oates and Public Safety Director Eugene Jalette that appeared on the mayor’s Twitter feed Friday.
“During these unprecedented times amidst COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the officers graduated from the Rhode Island Municipal Police Academy and were later sworn in without the usual pomp and circumstance,” they said.
Because of the governor’s executive orders restricting gatherings to no more than five people, relatives and friends
of the new recruits were not invited to observe the swearing-in or participate in the usual rites of pinning badges on them.
The officers graduated from the police academy on
April 24 and spent a week completing in-service training at the department in firearms, rules and regulations, and operating policies.
“Congratulations to each of the five accomplished Woonsocket Police Department officers and their families,” Baldelli-Hunt said. “It is a distinct honor and privilege to count you among our city’s team of law enforcement officers.”
Jalette thanked the officers for their “dedication and devotion” to looking after the welfare of the city and its residents.
Upon being sworn in, the recruits officially enter the WPD’s field training program as probationary police officers for a time before the department accepts them as full police officers.
The officials said they’re hopeful that, as restrictions on social gatherings are increasingly relaxed in the months ahead, as the governor envisions, the WPD will be able to hold a more traditional ceremony in the company of the officers’ family members and other invited guests later this summer.