The Department of Public Safety swore in five new officers at a Friday ceremony attended by the officers' families and various members of the Brown community.
The ceremony came on the heels of the University's announcement Friday that Mark Porter, currently director of public safety at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, will become Brown's chief of police and director of DPS in April.
The officers come to Brown from a variety of backgrounds in policing and crime prevention.
Leif Anderson rejoined DPS in November 2004. He has a degree in administrative justice and served in Operation Desert Storm.
John Finegan previously served as a member of the Providence Police Department. Finegan is trained in detective and interrogation techniques, which are skills he can incorporate into his work at DPS, said Capt. Emil Fioravanti, interim chief.
Glen Hebert worked with the Woonsocket Police Department for 21 years and was detective sergeant in charge of the night division for the last six years. Hebert received his bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Roger Williams University. Hebert said he wanted to join DPS because Brown is "a nice community and a good place to start a second career."
John Heston, a graduate of the Community College of Rhode Island, has worked for the Rhode Island Park Police Department and the Rhode Island Capitol Police Department. For the past 12 years, he has worked as an officer for the Charlestown Police Department.
Anthony LeDoux, also a graduate of CCRI, was previously an officer for the Rhode Island School of Design Public Safety Department. Prior to that appointment, he served as a police dispatcher for the Smithville Police Department and as a forest ranger for the Department of Environmental Management. LeDoux is a licensed emergency medical technician. He said he came to Brown because he wanted to be part of a sworn police department in which all officers have attended a police academy.
"This department is as strong as it has ever been, and it can only improve. Each day it gets better and stronger and more professional," Fioravanti said in the opening remarks of the ceremony. The new additions bring the force to 33 officers.
