Above: City of Olympia Police Chief Ronnie Roberts, left, welcomes Wally Noel, Olympia's newest police officer, after administering Noel's oath of office.
By
Janine Unsoeld
www.janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com
A brief, formal swearing in ceremony
yesterday marked the beginning of a new chapter for Olympia's newest police
officer Wally Noel and his family.
“We're seeing a whole new generation of police
officers,” said Olympia city manager Steve Hall, after the ceremony.
“We have officers who have worked at Starbucks, in
banks, served in the military…it’s really exciting in terms of the diversity in
background….This is the future of our force.”
Noel, who will retire in a month as a Major from
the Army, lives in Tumwater with his wife, Betheny, son Deven, 14, and daughter
Kiran, 10. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration and a
Master of Arts in Business and Organizational Security Management.
Noel spent 20 years in active service as a military
police officer. He served in the Army prison system for 10 years, went through
several deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, served in detention operations at
Guantanamo Bay, and was assigned to Joint Base Lewis McChord two and a half
years ago.
“We love the state of Washington, and Olympia. This
is where I’d like to retire. My kids and wife absolutely love it here,” said
Noel.
After witnessing the ceremony, Olympia police
department administrative assistant Marianne Weiland noted the longevity of
officer's careers and said that Olympia went through a big hiring of officers
20 to 25 years ago.
“Many of them are now retiring...it’s been exciting
to see the changes,” she said.
Noel’s
Family
After the ceremony, Noel’s family was all smiles. I
asked Deven what he likes best about the Olympia area.
After some reflective thought, and sighing, he said,
“Finally, we don’t have to run around.” Deven, who wore a tie and a white, long
sleeved shirt, plays trumpet for the Tacoma Youth Junior Symphony, and will go
to Black Hills High School next year.
“We’re finally in one spot,” Kiran agreed. She says
her favorite hobby is going out to eat. Asked what her favorite local
restaurants are, mom Betheny mentioned Vic’s Pizza, any place with sushi,
especially spicy tuna, and Lacey’s new Jimmy John’s. Kiran heartily agreed.
As relative newcomers, Betheny described her
impressions and passion for the South Sound community.
“After 20 years of traveling, this definitely is our
home. We’ve been a lot of places, but this is the only place we feel people
have open arms. We’ve lived in Germany, Italy, Hawaii, the Midwest, and the
South, and people here are very open, even the homeless people. I walk by and
they say, 'Good morning!' I’m very impressed.”
A fulltime wife and mother, Betheny is busy with her
children’s activities and parent teacher organizations, volunteers in their
classrooms, and is active in Tumwater school issues. She says she has high
expectations for quality education.
“We’ve lived in Dupont, Pierce County, Lacey, and
Tumwater and I’m really impressed, overall, with how the community here
supports the whole child, offering support to military families, taking the
time to talk to students, and caring about their emotional well-being. This is also a community where the arts are
supported – that’s important to me. When you’ve been a transient family for so
long, we need outlets. Not all kids like football.
“I believe all kids, whether they come from foster
homes, the military, or are bouncing around due to divorce, need the schools
and the community to work together to disseminate information, to have sources
for opportunities….”
She says when Deven starts at Black Hills next year,
he will have attended eleven schools.
“When children move around and change schools, they
lose credits,” she said. She is already looking forward to Deven's attendance
at New Market Skill Center’s free summer classes, which are available for
students entering 9th through 12th grade, and later, the Running Start program.
Running Start is a program designed for eligible
juniors and seniors to enroll in college level courses at South Puget Sound
Community College to receive both high school and college credit.
The
Training of a City of Olympia Police Officer
On July 1st, Noel will head to a five month
training in the police academy, then begin Olympia’s three to six month
training, and begin an 18 month probation process, all before he can go solo on
the streets of Olympia as a patrol officer.
Amy Stull, senior program specialist for the Olympia
police department's community programs, says an officer candidate has to be
hired by a law enforcement agency in order to attend the training academy.
“Completing the academy gives them state
certification. If they don’t pass, they don’t retain their employment.”
The academy, coordinated by the Washington State
Criminal Justice Training Commission, is in Burien. All law enforcement
officers attend that academy, except for the Washington State Patrol, which has
their own version.
Stull wrote about the new officer training process
for the Olympia Police Department newsletter in February, 2013:
In
the 1990’s, standard training was done by field training officers. New officers
would be assigned one field training officer after they completed the state
Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA). In recent years, the Olympia Police
Department has transitioned to the police training officer model.
One
of the goals was to better mesh with the Academy’s movement towards integrating
more adult learning concepts. New recruits now go through training after the
Academy and during their 18 months of probation.
Under
this new model, teaching is based on four substantive topics: police tactics,
criminal procedure, report writing and emergency response. Within these
categories are fifteen core competencies – use of force, local procedures (laws
and policy), leadership, problem solving, community-specific problems, cultural
diversity, legal authority, individual rights, ethics, observations skills,
multi-tasking, police vehicle operation, conflict resolution, officer safety,
communication skills and lifestyle stressors.
The
training period is divided into four phases with a mid-term and final
evaluation. Each phase takes two to four weeks. Phase one is focused on
non-emergency operations, the second on emergency response, the third on
criminal procedure and the fourth on patrol activity, which encompasses
everything learned during the training. After the first two phases, a different
police training officer evaluates the recruit’s progress. Yet another officer
takes the recruit through the next phases and a fourth police training officer
does the final evaluation.
The
goal of the program is to put recruits in learning situations that allow them
to use their level of knowledge and problem solve. Training officers look for
opportunities to create problem-based learning exercises that involve multiple
core competencies. This makes it possible to carefully evaluate each new
employee’s chance for a successful career at the Olympia Police Department.
Current
Olympia Police Department Officer StatisticsWhen asked for specific statistics on current officer demographics regarding gender, race, and language diversity, Olympia police department spokesperson, Laura Wohl, provided the following information:
“We now have eight female officers. As for
languages, we have one certified Spanish interpreter. We also have several
bilingual or semi-bilingual people who are not certified. Certification
requires a test and then allows one to interpret in court. Because they are not
certified, we don’t have a formal record of these officers, so I’ll give you
the best that I can remember: of those who speak a second language, we now have
two officers who speak sign language and we have two or three who speak
Spanish.”
After some research by the human resources department, she said that in the last 25 years, the department has employed 12 African
American officers and corrections officers, three Hispanic/Latino officers and
corrections officers, and four Asian/Pacific Islander officers and corrections
officers.
“We have had African American police officers at
different times in the last 25 years. We did have a period recently when we had
no African American police officers on the force – between November 2012 and
April 16, 2014, when Wally was sworn in,” said Wohl.
