The Wheat Ridge Police Department is proud to introduce its four newest officers: DeNoto, Bennett, Pochocki and Iyo. They all come from different parts of the country, bringing their unique life experience to the Wheat Ridge community.
Officer DeNoto is a transplant from the East Coast who came to the Front Range as a child and is a proud Marine Corps veteran.
Officer Bennett is a California native who also relocated to Colorado, in his case to attend college where he promptly changed his major from business to criminal justice.
Officer Pochocki is the only Colorado native and a graduate of Metropolitan State University. He was a marketing major who spent time working in the private sector before he he realized law enforcement would allow him to give back to his community in a way that he had always felt called to do.
And finally Officer Iyo comes from the Hawaiian Islands where he spent five years in the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment.
All four completed five months of intense training at the Combined Regional (Law Enforcement) Academy and have entered the second stage of their on-boarding process, which consists of four phases of field training with an experienced Wheat Ridge Patrol Officer. You can expect to see them operating solo sometime this fall.
The WRPD also has four new hires entering the Combined Regional Academy at the end of July. That brings the department’s number to 86 sworn officers. We are authorized for a sworn staff of 87, meaning that we are currently just one officer short. While the landscape of recruiting has changed drastically in the last few years with fewer qualified applicants applying, WRPD has been fortunate to remain nearly fully staffed. But due to attrition, we are always hiring. We are in the process of producing a robust recruitment video that focuses on the reality of policing in America today – the good, the bad, the ugly, and the caliber of person still willing to wear the badge knowing all of it.
Wheat Ridge continues to be a community that supports its police department, making this an attractive city in which to serve. While every police department is now expected to answer for every incident that occurs within this profession – whether at the agency next door or an agency hundreds, even thousands of miles away that we’ve never heard of – Wheat Ridge writes its own story. We are a family here, small enough to know every person we work with and large enough to be constantly busy responding to the never-ending stream of calls for service. We will continue to recruit and employ exemplary people who provide exemplary service.
Joanna Small is Public Information Officer for the Wheat Ridge Police Department.
