The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office officially welcomed nine new Sheriff’s deputies to its team. On Dec. 8 at a traditional ceremony before a room of dignitaries, family, and friends, 29 recruits graduated from the Allan Hancock Law Enforcement College Academy in Lompoc. Of those graduates, nine were hired by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. They are Kyle Bibby, Eduardo Cazarez, Tyler Davis, James Furber, Christopher Morales, Michael Reynoso, Mark Riggar, Garrett Ross, and Dustin Winebrenner.
The Sheriff’s Office graduates range in age from 22 to 40 years. They come from all walks of life including eight with military experience, eight with an associate degree, eight with a bachelor’s degree, and one with a master’s degree. Seven of the graduates are collegiate athletes.
In order to make it to graduation day, the recruits endured 842 hours of comprehensive training over the past five months. The instruction included community policing, patrol rifle training, laws of arrest, criminal investigations, firearms, emergency vehicle operation, chemical agents, scenarios, report writing, and numerous written exams. The training hours do not include the many additional hours they spent at night studying and preparing for tests and application of the instruction.
Also, collectively they lost a total of 215 pounds over the course of the academy.
Sheriff’s Senior Deputy and Senior Recruit Training Officer J. Langehenning said he is proud of the group.
“It has been my pleasure to watch them grow and to have been a part of their first steps in what will surely be a long career of public service,” he said in a press release. “This class demonstrated great discipline and integrity throughout this rigorous training. They have shown they are willing to sacrifice in order to protect and serve the public.”
The new Sheriff’s deputies were sworn in by Undersheriff Bernard Melekian prior to the ceremony and received their new badges. They have two more weeks of in-house training followed by a period of field training.
The rest of the graduating class included recruits hired by the Santa Maria Police Department, San Luis Obispo Police Department, Arroyo Grande Police Department, and the UCSB Police Department.
This article appears in Dec 15-22, 2016.