March 03--Growing up in the Czech Republic, Martin Kriz decided in high school that he wanted to become a police officer one day.
But he never expected he would become a law enforcement officer in the United States. He moved to America at age 24 and worked at a bagel shop and a Lowe's store in the Charlottesville area.
One day, a local cop told him he should apply to the Virginia State Police if he wanted to begin a career in law enforcement.
Because he was not yet a U.S. citizen, he couldn't work for the state police, so he started out as a Fluvanna County emergency dispatcher and then a Fluvanna sheriff's deputy before entering the nine-month Virginia State Police academy.
Kriz, now 31, is among 80 proud new state troopers -- 79 men and one woman -- to graduate Friday from the 117th Basic Session. It's the largest number of graduates to complete the state police academy since the agency was established 80 years ago.
The 117th class also is noteworthy for having the largest number of graduates born outside the U.S., including Kriz and five new troopers from Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, the Philippines and South Korea.
Other recruits hail from Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and all across Virginia.
Kriz, who will be patrolling in Louisa County, said he is excited to serve and protect the public and be there to back up other troopers out on the roads.
"That's the best feeling -- not finishing the training, but being able to help those who need it the most," Kriz said after Friday's ceremony that drew about 1,500 people to The Meadow Event Park in Doswell.
Actually, a total of 108 men and women became troopers Friday, because 28 of the department's former commercial vehicle enforcement officers, or CVEOs, completed a 12-week CVEO-to-Trooper Conversion School. The former CVEOs will continue to work at Virginia's weigh stations, where they assist in vehicle inspections, but they now will be available when needed for highway patrol duties.
One of the former CVEOs, Steve Benson, died of natural causes before he finished the conversion school. He was honored at Friday's ceremony.
The graduates of the 117th Basic Session completed hundreds of hours of classroom instruction and field instruction encompassing more than 100 subjects. They will report Monday for their first duty assignments, and each recruit will be partnered with a field training officer for at least six weeks.
"We all had one goal in mind," said trooper Jared Vance, president of the 117th academy class. "We would do whatever it took to wear the blue and gray."
Col. W. Steven Flaherty the state police superintendent, said Friday that the department, even with 80 new troopers hitting the roads, still has more than 200 unfilled sworn positions. He said the department's budget has been shrinking since at least 2006.
"We're still short," Flaherty said during the ceremony. "We still need some extra resources to do what we're asked to do."
The department has an annual budget of about $300 million and approximately 1,800 sworn employees, including the graduates of the 117th Basic Session.
When the agency was established in 1932, the recruits had to go through only a five-week academy, Flaherty said during his speech.
"You paid us to come to school," he said. "If you didn't break anything, we'd give you $35 of your $41 back."
Trainees now are paid a salary while they are in the academy. It costs the state police about $250,000 a month to run the academy, spokeswoman Corinne Geller said.
Flaherty explained to the new troopers how important it is that they carry themselves with integrity, fortitude and compassion.
"Every day that you work, the citizens are going to depend on you to be at your very, very best, even though most of the people that you deal with, for one reason or another, are likely to be at their worst," Flaherty said.
"Only you can determine how you're going to respond, how you're going to react to a particular situation, to a particular circumstance," he added. "You have control of your attitude.
"The public will demand your value. They will demand your response. They will expect you to be fair-minded -- fair-minded beyond most common expectations."
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Copyright 2012 - Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.
