The academy class had 30 Springfield appointments, five from Holyoke and two from East Longmeadow
Springfield police officer Hector Morales poses with his 1-year-old son, Hector Morales Jr. after Thursday's police academy graduationCHICOPEE — Hector Morales achieved his childhood dream Thursday afternoon. So did Dorota Beben.
Morales and Beben were among the 37 graduates of the Springfield Police Academy celebrated during a graduation ceremony Thursday at Westover Air Reserve Base. Before several hundred family and friends in an airplane hanger, the graduating class - 30 from Springfield, five from Holyoke and two from East Longmeadow - celebrated the conclusion of six months training and the commencement of a new career.
Morales, a Springfield officer, and Beben of Holyoke, each spoke after the ceremony of being pulled toward policing as children, inspired by family members who wore a badge.
“My uncle is a police officer,” Morales said of Springfield police officer Clayton Roberson. “When I was seven, I saw him in his uniform and that was it; I just fell in love with the job,” Morales said.
For Bebin, it was her father, Stanley, who was a police officer in her native Poland. When the family moved to Holyoke when she was nine, it was already implanted in her what she wanted to do when she grew up.
“I just always remember looking up to police officers my whole life,” she said. It was her father who pinned the badge on her dress uniform during the ceremony, which she said was both a tremendous honor and very emotion for both of them.
Holyoke police officer Dorota BebenThroughout the ceremony, speakers described police work through broader themes of duty, public service and, yes, family.
Springfield police Lt. Harry Kastrinakis, director of the academy, said each of graduates would be linked forever, even across city lines.
“Six months ago, these 37 men and women began a journey to train to be the best police officers in the Commonwealth,” he said.
Springfield Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet said the hours are long, the work dangerous, and the accolades few.
“Your personal character and integrity will be the tools with which you will succeed. Always do your duty with honor,” he said.
Frederick Seklecki, interim Holyoke police chief, said when he went on his first patrol 27 years ago, he remembers his first partner saying the two best tools a police officer can have are compassion and common sense.
With many of the graduates about to begin their first patrols on Saturday or Sunday, Seklecki said “Please look out for each other and, for God’s sake, be careful out there.”
Daniel Zivkovich, executive director of the Massachusetts Police Training Council, which sets statewide standards for police training, said urged them to always remember that they are police officers, not merely law enforcement.
Law enforcement is about making arrests and writing tickets, he said. Policing is about serving and protecting the community and its citizens.
“Always remember you are a police officer and a public servant, and you are not above anyone else,” he said.