Sarasota Police Department adds 10 new officers

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - The Sarasota Police Department is now 10 police officers stronger. Thursday the department held a swearing-in ceremony for the 10 officers, which is the biggest class they’ve had in two years.

Each officer was accompanied by their loved ones. One family member from each group had the privilege of pinning their badge to their uniform.

Many speakers talked about the dangers of the job. New officer Alec Evedon referenced what it was like watching his brothers-in-arms respond to the school shooting in Nashville.

“It’s not just a job that you can wake up and say, ‘I’m going to go do this proficiently.’ This is a perishable skill. I’m sure you guys heard what happened in Nashville. That was a textbook active shooter drill where they ran toward stimulus- which is the gunfire, and did what they had to do to eliminate the threat. That’s textbook. That’s what we are trained to do,” said Evedon.

According to Chief Rex Troche, even though this is the biggest recruiting class they’ve had in a couple of years, they have 17 more recruits on the way.

Chief Troche said the department has been extremely aggressive in its recruiting efforts by utilizing social media.

“We went on Facebook. We were able to geofence areas throughout the country. We were able to saturate areas. We found out through Facebook, which was literally instantaneous, we literally had to shut down the application process because we are so overwhelmed with applications,” he said.

While many agencies have increased their salaries for officers, many people in law enforcement are considered working class.

According to one of the recruits, Kasey Dougan, it’s the service to her community which is why she chose this industry.

“You definitely don’t do law enforcement for the money. You definitely do it to make an impact. I just love the family aspect of the job—knowing someone always has my six. You’re never going to go to the same call. Even if it’s the same residence. So it’s just like unknown,” said Dougan