NEWS

Mansfield police swear in new officers

Courtney Day
Reporter
Bryce A. Edwards, Cameron J. Shepherd and Nicholas A. Stevens are sworn in as probationary police officers for the Mansfield Police Department during a Friday ceremony.

MANSFIELD - When you find high quality job applicants, they really jump out at you, Mansfield Safety-Service Director Lori Cope said.

That's exactly what happened with the three newest members of the Mansfield police force, each of whom was sworn in at a ceremony Friday.

"These are three guys that it wasn't even in question whether we should hire them. It was 'how fast can we sign them up,'" Chief Ken Coontz said of the three new officers, who will be assigned to the special operations bureau professional standards section for a 12-month probationary period.

The three young men, Bryce A. Edwards, Nicholas A. Stevens and Cameron J. Shepherd, all are from the Mansfield area and look forward to serving the community in their hometown.

Edwards, 28, is a graduate of Madison Comprehensive High School. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in agricultural business, but found it wasn't the right career for him and decided to pursue a lifelong dream to be a police officer.

Shepherd, too, said he wanted to be a police office from a young age.

"I always felt the calling to help people, I think," the 22-year-old said.

A Mansfield Christian School graduate, Shepherd is a member of the Indiana National Guard and said he has a year and a half left on his military contract.

Stevens, 26, said he looks forward to working in and being part of the Mansfield community, where he graduated from Mansfield Senior High School and studied at OSU-Mansfield.

Coontz said each of the new officers passed a rigorous background check and completed a polygraph test and a psychological evaluation.

"We do all these steps because we want to make Mansfield a better community and we want to make the Mansfield Police Department a better police department for our community, for everybody that comes into Mansfield," Coontz said.

Assistant Chief Keith Porch presented each officer with a badge and welcomed the men to the force, and Mayor Tim Theaker thanked the men for joining what he called the best police force in the area.

"You are joining a career during a really volatile time, but this is more than just being hired on a police department," Cope told the new officers. "We really are family here, from the very newest officer clear up to the chief and the administration, and we look out for each other and take care of each other. We would expect that from you, and you can expect it from this department."

The next step for each of the new officers is to complete a training academy through the Ohio Highway Patrol.  Coontz told family members of the officers they will start to notice a transformation in their loved ones as soon as they attend that academy.

ceday@gannett.com

419-521-7220

Twitter: @courtneydaynj