ARLINGTON — For many police departments, new hires are not a big deal, but for Arlington, adding four officers to a staff of 22 patrol officers is significant, even without taking into account that they’re among the first new officers in nearly a decade.
Field training officers Peter Barrett and Curtis Hirotaka explained that Justin Olson, Pen Cook, Kendahl Beecher and Luke Adkins attended training specific to the Arlington community, after they’d finished their stints at the police academy.
“We teach them the Arlington way of doing things,” Barrett said. “We expect them to connect to the community. We care. We don’t just hand out cards, and we don’t just respond to crime. Our goal is to prevent future crime.”
Hirotaka elaborated that one goal is to make sure citizens feel open to reporting and communicating anything suspicious to police.
“This community has so much involvement with its citizens,” Hirotaka said. “They take part in what the city provides. I haven’t heard of many cities that offer as many activities as Arlington, from parades and movies in the park to street fairs and farmers’ markets.”
Just as Hirotaka asserted the need for the police department to allocate its resources in response to needs indicated by the public, so too has Olson learned to adjust his responses on the scene, as the situation changes.
“It’s not as black-and-white as the academy, where you have all the time in the world to think about a problem,” Olson said. “You can’t just sit in a fishbowl. You’re not going to be able to do this job unless you integrate into the community.”
Olson brought his experiences as an MP in the Air Force, but he’s learned to adopt a more flexible approach in serving Arlington’s citizens.
“The military is very stern and tells you to do things one way,” Olson said. “In Arlington, we’re working with community issues and getting to know people on a first-name basis. You have to understand their fears and concerns in order to address them effectively.”
While Olson was active-duty enlisted for eight years, Cook spent nearly a decade as a youth pastor before pursuing his life’s dream of law enforcement.
“What I love most about Arlington is the family atmosphere in the department,” said Cook, who previously worked for Everett police.
By contrast, Beecher is a relatively fresh-faced rookie, having only just graduated from Marysville-Pilchuck High School in 2012, and with an associate’s degree in criminal justice from Everett Community College, all while serving for three-and-a-half years and counting in the Army Reserves.
Adkins is looking to move to Arlington from his current home of Whidbey Island. He also took criminal justice at EvCC, and has prior experience with Langley police.
Barrett noted that, while the police academy comprises 720 hours of instruction, the four new officers’ field training is not measured by time, but by mastery of content.
“They need to know how to deal with everything from barking dogs to barricades to bomb threats,” Barrett said.
