Five new officers take to Sedona’s streets Sunday, Aug. 19, filling Sedona Police Department’s patrol unit for the first time in several years.
By Trista Steers
Larson Newspapers
Five new officers take to Sedona’s streets Sunday, Aug. 19, filling Sedona Police Department’s patrol unit for the first time in several years.
New recruits are currently undergoing 12 weeks of supervised field training but will be out on their own mid-month.
Five is the largest number of new officers SPD has trained at once, according to Cmdr. Ron Wheeler, but now all SPD vacancies are filled.
"These five guys will fill up the vacancies we’ve had so we can concentrate on giving good customer service to the residents," Wheelers said.
For the past few years, SPD always had at least one vacancy on the force.
Wheeler attributes staffing shortages to a few factors.
Many people interested in becoming police officers are the same men and women willing to serve in the military, Wheeler said. Now that the United States is at war, police departments are having a hard time keeping units full.
Also, filling positions takes time.
It took SPD a year from the time the five new officers were interviewed to have them on the street, Wheeler said.
SPD Detectives Lucas Wilcoxson and Michael Dominguez put applicants through rigorous testing and screening before SPD sent them to the Police Academy in Prescott.
After graduation, veteran SPD officers showed recruits the ropes.
Dominguez and Wilcoxson, along with Sgt. Dave Zanot, and officers Karl Waak, John Dexter, Bill Hunt, Jerome Bilas, Stephanie Foley, Matt Tanner, Chris Stevens and Rena Dearden, took turns toting the new guys around.
"It’s been a drain on the whole department but everyone pulled through," Wheeler said.
Jeremy Ebert, a new SPD officer, said he learned a great deal from training officers but he’s ready to get out on his own.
Ebert previously worked for the city of Mesa’s Department of Corrections, so he said some procedures aren’t necessarily new to him. Despite his background, Ebert was receptive to instruction.
"The more learning the better," Ebert said. "When you stop learning, you’re dead."
According to Ebert, he was attracted to SPD because it is a lead agency in Northern Arizona.
Ramon Dominguez, a new SPD officer, took the job to fulfill a childhood dream.
"I’ve wanted to be a police officer since I was young," Dominguez said. "I like helping people."
Dominguez lived in the Verde Valley for 10 years working at Big O Tires in Sedona before applying for a position at SPD.
Police work interested Dominguez because something different happens everyday and officers deal with new people all the time.
Sean Marchese, a new SPD officer, pursued a career at SPD to become part of the city while giving back to the community.
According to Wheeler, a full patrol force allows SPD to shift a few veteran officers around.
One more officer will eventually join Waak in SPD’s new traffic patrol motorcycle unit and one current member of the force will be promoted to detective sergeant.
SPD officers will continue to work 12-hour shifts in four-man units — three officers and a sergeant.
Trista Steers can be reached at
282-7795, Ext. 129, or
tsteers@larsonnewspapers.com.
