Dec. 30—LAKEPORT — Congratulations and kudos were offered to city of Lakeport's newest police officers who graduated from the Santa Rosa Junior College Public Safety Training Center (SRJCPSTC) on December 7. They were subsequently sworn into office by Chief Brad Rasmussen accompanied by city staff as well as their family members, doing the honors of pinning their new badges on their uniforms.
Officers, Marissa Onate and Alexis Pizano, both 24 years old, attended Lake County schools noted Lt. Dale Stoebe. Both, Hispanic heritage background,
are bi-lingual English Spanish.
After high school, Onate attended Santa Rosa Junior College receiving two associate degrees, one in administration of justice, and then attended Sacramento State University where she received a bachelor's degree in administration of justice. While at these colleges Onate also worked for the campus police departments.
Prior to being hired by LPD as a police trainee in July 2022, she served as a substitute teacher at Lower Lake High School. During graduation ceremonies, Onate was recognized as being tied for second place in student scenario testing
achievement, Stoebe pointed out.
Pizano immigrated to the U.S. at two years old, was a member of the local work force in Lakeport before being hired by the city as a police trainee in July 2023. He was also raising his young daughter while attending the police academy, Stoebe added.
The hiring of these officers, who went through extensive testing, background process and pre-academic agency training over the past 18 months, which is part of the Lakeport City Council's policy implementation on police retention and recruitment for the community. They are also part of the City and Police Departments goals of hiring to make the police department a reflection of the community it serves.
There were 43 total graduates from 16 agencies in the north coast region. Some notable aspects regarding this academy class are it was number two academically among the 42 other current academy classes in California. There were no candidates who failed, 12 were veterans, 14 are bi-lingual, 18 earned bachelor's degrees, 5 have master's degrees and 15 are female — the most ever in a SRJCPSTC academy, Stoebe added.
The recruitment could not have arrived at a more crucial time. At this month's Middletown Area town hall meeting Administrative Lt. Luke Bingham (Sheriff's Office) informed the chamber's audience of the one issue that is inescapable for Lake County, the serious shortfall of law enforcement sworn staff. "It's woefully understaffed," he said at the Dec. 18 meeting. "We're (Sheriff's) running a modified schedule now. And that doesn't allow us to do all the things we'd like to do." Yet the upside he noted was police training academies are graduating officers this spring.
Once staffing rises to acceptable levels, Bingham told the MATH audience he hopes peace officer staff would return to community based oriented policing.
"The deputy then gets to know the business owners in the community, what the problems are there and bring it back to the various policing agencies," he said.
City staff attending the graduation and supporting the new officers were, City Manager Kevin Ingram, Chief of Police Brad Rasmussen, Lieutenant Dale Stoebe, Sergeant Sarah Hardisty, Records & Evidence Supervisor Tammy Prather and Officers Shaun Johnson, Juan Altamirano and Todd Freitas.
Lt. Stoebe pointed out officers Marissa Onate and Alexis Pizano explained they will now begin 14 weeks of field training. They are then qualified for general patrol before they will be tasked with special assignments.
(c)2023 Lake County Record-Bee, Lakeport, Calif. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.