By Seth Daniel
Fifteen new Chelsea Police officers – one of the most diverse classes of officers to ever come onto the force – raised their right hands Monday night to take the sacred oath of upholding law and order in Chelsea.
City Clerk Jeannette Cintron gave the oath and the officers recited it as a jam-packed crowd stuffed themselves into every free space within the Council Chambers.
Police Chief Brian Kyes said that two of the officers graduated from the Academy last Friday and and the other 13 graduated from the Lowell Transit Police academy in the last few months.
“They have hit the ground running, quite literally,” he said, noting that some of the officers have already been involved in some very intense foot chases through Chelsea.
More than anything, Kyes stressed that the class was very diverse – having numerous new Latino and Latina officers. He said the entire department is a leader statewide in the diversity category within its contingent.
“The Chelsea Police Department has 111 police officers,” said Kyes. “We have an extremely diverse city in an urban environment, and we also have an extremely diverse department. We are 36 percent diverse in our ranks and growing all the time. In 1987 when I came on, we had one Latino officer and one African American officer. Today, 36 percent of our police department is diverse – second only to Springfield, which is 37 percent. The average for diversity statewide is 13 percent in large cities. Mid-size cities have around 5 percent. Chelsea is ahead of the curve. We have five more officers in the academy right now and three are Latino.”
He added that over the first 10 months of the year, violent crime is down 10 percent from the same time last year.
“That is in no small part to these officers being out and protecting our streets,” he said.
The officers sworn in on Monday include:
- Officer Garrison Daniel
- Officer Joseph Cordes
- Officer Aristides Rodriguez
- Officer Anthony Morales
- Officer Luis Diaz
- Officer Timothy McCarthy
- Officer Matthew Dinicola
- Officer Thomas Broman
- Officer Jorge Gallego
- Officer Dominic LaMarra
- Officer Jonathan Maldonado
- Officer Long Lam
- Officer Michael Villanueva
- Officer Priscilla Gomez