Chief Diaz and Capt. Beard
Chief Diaz and Capt. Wicks
The Seattle Police Department and the United States Army celebrated today the completion of the inaugural Law Enforcement Intern Program. The goal of this venture has been to provide two select military interns with as much civilian law enforcement procedure and technique as possible during a 90-day program. Military Police Captains Rebecca Beard and Leah Wicks were chosen to be the first to participate in this joint endeavor, beginning their internship with Seattle Police on July 15th.
The knowledge gained by Captains Beard and Wicks will be taken with them to future assignments in host nations, most notably Afghanistan and Iraq, where they may be able to apply some of the procedures and techniques gathered from the Seattle Police Department as they work closely with the civilian law enforcement agencies in those countries.
The Seattle Police Department has been the pilot police agency for this program, which the Army intends to expand across the country to reciprocal police agencies such as New York City, Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Kansas City. It is believed that the Seattle Police Department will play a key role in assisting these agencies as they develop their individual intern programs.
All citizens of Seattle can take great pride in their police department’s participation in this pilot program. This is our way of supporting our country’s men and women in uniform in their worldwide peace-keeping mission. It is very possible that some officer safety procedure or technique utilized routinely by the Seattle Police Department will be instrumental in protecting and saving the lives of our military personnel and the civilian population in the foreign countries in which they are serving.
Interim Chief John Diaz says, “On behalf of the men and women of the Seattle Police Department, we honor all service members. We are proud to be the first police force to extend our civilian training and experience to the Army Military Police in the new Law Enforcement Intern Program. I believe that this joint collaboration has been a resounding success. Congratulations Captains Beard and Wicks and good luck in your future assignments.”