Five of the six newest UCF Police officers who were sworn into service Tuesday have a connection to the University of Central Florida, and all have ties to the central Florida community.
Before officially swearing-in the new officers in front of their family, friends and colleagues, UCFPD Chief Carl Metzger ’03MS shared some words of wisdom.
“It takes a special kind of person to do this job, especially here on campus,” Metzger says. “Professors can’t teach, our students can’t learn, they can’t do research if they’re not safe. And we bring that level of safety and comfort to them, so they don’t have to worry about that. That’s what we do every day.”
The new officers are:
- Jeffrey Hopkins, a former Seminole County Sheriff’s Office dispatcher who is originally from Alabama
- Tyrone Jackson ’13, a former Orange County Corrections officer who earned his degree in criminal justice through DirectConnect to UCF
- Arijeta Kavaja ’13, who previously worked with the Florida Highway Patrol and earned her degree in criminal justice through DirectConnect to UCF
- Michael Maguire ’15, a former UCFPD dispatcher who earned his degree in criminal justice
- Yoan Rojas, a former UCFPD Community Service Officer (CSO) who was named CSO of the Year by the department in February
- Allison Sienkiewicz ’17, who previously interned at UCFPD in the Community Partnerships Unit and earned her degree in criminal justice
The six officers will continue their classroom training for the next several weeks before being paired with Field Training Officers to gain on-hands experience. Later this year, they will patrol campus on their own.
A live-stream of the ceremony can be viewed on Facebook.
