Class 4-15 Recruit Graduation

Click here for COP Grad Speech 10-2-15

October 2, 2024 – A Los Angeles Police Academy graduation ceremony was held this morning at the LAPD Administration Building plaza.  

Today’s ceremony featured 30 graduates, one of which was for Los Angeles World Airports and another one for the Port of Los Angeles.  All recruits have completed 920 hours of training over the course of 24 weeks.  In full uniform and anxiously anticipating receipt of their diplomas, the recruits appeared before Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Chief Charlie Beck and command staff, invited guests and hundreds of spectators.   

Chief Beck places a high priority on attending recruit graduation ceremonies as an opportunity to thank, inform, and congratulate LAPD’s newest officers.  In addressing the many family members and friends gathered at the ceremony to support the new officers, he talked about how he supported his own adult children when they attended the police academy.  “But all of those things are pale [compared] to the worry, the trepidation and anxiety that you feel about your loved one’s future,” he said.  “But let me calm those fears. They are the best-trained police officers in the world. They will remain safe. They will come home to you every day because of something you gave them, something I cannot instill in them…and that is their character.”

Above all else, Chief Beck stresses that graduating officers can only be successful if they possess the right kind of character, instilled and maintained in them from the influence of family and friends.

In closing, Chief Beck reminded the graduates they have joined the LAPD at a “tremendous time of change” with a “momentous and positive impact on our profession.”  He also told them he would judge and task each of them to spend as much time creating trust and building relationships as they do in fighting crime.   

Recruits will be on patrol in their respective LAPD divisions as soon as this coming Sunday, October 4.  Upholding tradition at the end of the graduation, the recruits recited their class chant and tossed their caps high into the air, a joyous symbol of their success at the police academy and the promise of a fulfilling career as LAPD police officers.       

Comments

[Lynnette Lawetzki]

My brother was one of the graduates and the ceremony was amazing. The speeches from Mayor Garcetti and Chief Beck made me cry. We do worry about our loved ones but we know they are helping so many others. Class 4-15 had amazing people and I know they will make Los Angeles proud!!