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Fire and Police Departments Fill Out Their Ranks

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New firefighters Nicole McCurry and Meggie Elledge in front of firetruck
New firefighters Nicole McCurry, left, and Meggie Elledge, both members of the ٺƵ Class of 2013.

The campus Fire and Police departments have filled out their ranks with seven new hires, including three women who will bring the number of female personnel with the “firefighter” job title to five — equal to the number of men for the first time ever.

“This sets important groundwork for the future,” Chief Nate Trauernicht said, referring to the opportunities the women will have to move up in the ranks, to engineer, captain, assistant chief and chief.

New firefighters Johnita Lanni-Cradit and Chris Lujan in front of firetruck
New firefighters Johnita Lanni-Cradit and Chris Lujan.

Trauernicht said the department is hiring four firefighters in all. They came out on top in a recruitment process that included three panels — each with three Fire Department members and one other ٺƵ employee. The hires are conditional pending the recruits’ completing fire academy training (it starts in July and ends in early December).

With the hires, women now represent 44 percent of the Fire Department’s overall staffing of 64 (including students), up from 11 percent in 2014-15.

The new firefighters: Meggie Elledge, Johnita Lanni-Cradit, Chris Lujan and Nicole McCurry.

McCurry and Lanni-Cradit both graduated from ٺƵ in 2013: Lanni-Cradit with a degree in animal science and McCurry with a degree in community and regional development. Lujan is a 2015 graduate of ٺƵ’ emergency medical technician program (and son of a ٺƵ graduate).

3 new officers with Joe Farrow
New hires and the chief, from left: Glen Faulkner, Chief Farrow, Eric Schneider and Eric Palmer. (Paul Henoch/ٺƵ)

Police Department

At the Police Department’s annual awards ceremony May 24, Chief Joe Farrow presided over the badge “pinning” of three new officers. The new officers: Glen Faulkner and Eric Schneider, both joining ٺƵ from the Sacramento Police Department; and Eric Palmer, joining ٺƵ from the West Sacramento Police Department.

See Laurels column for a report on Police Department awards, including 14 UC Lifesaving Medals and Dispatcher of the Year.

Jeff Rott mugshot
Rott

The Police Department has 48 sworn officers, of whom nine are female — accounting for almost 19 percent. Looking at the department overall (sworn officers and professional staff), women comprise more than a third of the personnel count, or 25 positions out of 71.

The professional staff includes Jeff Rott, recently promoted to security director — a promotion that Chief Farrow out during the awards ceremony.

Capt. Jennifer Garcia said Rott “is definitely a homegrown Aggie,” noting that he was an Aggie Host from 1998 until he graduated in 2003, worked as a dispatcher from 2003 to 2014, then moved into the security division. He moved up to director in March after a nationwide search to fill the position.

“We’re very proud of him and fortunate to have him with us,” Garcia said. “He’s an excellent employee with a positive can-do attitude.”

Cadet Academy

Ray Holguin mugshot
Officer Ray Holguin supervises the Cadet Academy.

In preparation for future vacancies in the ranks of sworn officers, the department has made offers to three ٺƵ students who this year completed the department’s Cadet Academy, conditional on their completion of regular police academy training.

The Cadet Academy, held annually from January to May, is open to seniors and graduate students interested in law enforcement, forensics, criminology and an array of other related professions.

The academy began in 2013, making this year’s class the sixth. A graduation ceremony for the 21 cadets of 2018 took place during the Police Department’s awards program.

The department extended job offers to graduating seniors Andrew Carriger, managerial economics major; Rickardo “Ricky” Lee, psychology major (biological emphasis); and Justin Williams, political science major — and gave each of them a scholarship to the Sacramento Police Academy.

Two other graduating seniors received department scholarships to attend the Napa Police Academy: Martín Cortes and Christian Job “C.J.” Perez, both of them sociology majors with an emphasis in law and society.

Cadet Academy graduating class, 2018
The Cadet Academy Class of 2018, with Capt. Jennifer Garcia, left; Chief Farrow, center; and officer Ray Holguin, center right, of the Police Department’s Outreach Unit, which includes the Cadet Academy and Police Community Academy. The cadets, chief and officers, from left: Front row — Capt. Garcia, Endy Ixcoy, Nick Bucher, Dylan King, Glenda Sanchez, Arco-Enciel “Arbie” Manuel, Chief Farrow, officer Holguin, Alfonso Lomeli and Austin Cory Adams. Middle row — Justin Williams (partially obscured), Martín Cortes, Thiago Dutra, Andrew Carriger and Colin van Ree. Top row — Austin Miller, Blake Escobar, Asha Pluton, Maria Rodriguez, Valerie Ngo Ho, David Uribe, Christian Job “C.J.” Perez, Isabella Romero and Rickardo “Ricky” Lee. (Paul Henoch/ٺƵ)

Other graduating seniors (and their majors) who completed the Cadet Academy:

  • Austin Cory Adams, sociology and political science
  • Nick Bucher, sociology and minor in applied computing and information systems
  • Thiago Dutra, political science (public service emphasis) and minor in sociology
  • Blake Escobar, human development
  • Endy Ixcoy, psychology, and Chicana and Chicano studies
  • Dylan King, economics
  • Alfonso Lomeli, psychology
  • Austin Miller, sociology
  • Valerie Ngo Ho, communication
  • Asha Pluton, wildlife, fish and conservation biology
  • Maria Rodriguez, psychology
  • Isabella Romero, psychology
  • Glenda Sanchez, environmental science and management, and minor in geographical information systems
  • David Angel Uribe, communication major
  • Colin van Ree, psychology and minor in sociology (law and society emphasis)

A graduate student rounds out the list of Cadet Academy graduates: Arco-Enciel “Arbie” Manuel, Master of Science in forensic science.

Media Resources

Dateline Staff, 530-752-6556, dateline@ucdavis.edu

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