Full Notification

A new class of officers will graduate from the Arlington Police Department training academy Friday, Aug. 20, 2010. Twelve new recruits will join the department’s rank-and-file, and begin patrolling the city with Field Training Officers.

In addition to our esteemed police command staff, the department’s newest class of officers will also hear from a special guest at Friday’s ceremony - United States Department of Justice Director Bernard Melekian, who heads the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office. Director Melekian will spend much of the day seeing some of Arlington’s community policing efforts firsthand and then offer some words of advice to the graduating class, for which eight positions were funded through COPS grants.

Arlington received funding for 31 entry-level positions through COPS grants last year. The department’s last class of 23 graduates in April was fully funded through the grants, and the remaining eight grants supplemented Friday’s graduating class of 12.

The graduation ceremony will be held at the MetroCenter at Fielder Road Baptist Church (1323 W. Pioneer Parkway in Arlington) at 3 p.m. The ceremony is open to the press.