KINGSTON, R.I. – March 23, 2022 \u2013 Nicole Wagner always looked forward to the afternoon sessions at the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These were the moments when the cadets would leave their heavy sandbags outside \u2013 to be returned to tomorrow \u2013 and enter the classroom where they\u2019d learn what it takes to be a police officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wagner spent months learning from academic instructors and guest lecturers about the importance of policing, criminal procedure and traffic laws. She graduated from the police academy at the top of her class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t expect it. I knew I did well on tests, but I didn\u2019t think I was valedictorian,\u201d said Wagner, who is originally from Mansfield, Massachusetts<\/strong>, but now based in Richmond<\/strong>. \u201cIt made me feel good, and it gave me a sense of confidence going into my job saying \u2018I do know this material.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After graduating with a bachelor\u2019s degree in criminal justice from Johnson & Wales University in 2020, Wagner said she felt primed for the academic rigor of the academy. She helped her classmates by making and sharing study guides for major exams because she had a background in the field. Yet, she knew she still had a lot to learn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe academy taught me to expect the unexpected,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cThings can change in a split second. They kept saying \u2018keep your head on a swivel.\u2019 Be prepared at any moment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n After her graduation in May, she was ready to get to work. She joined the 溏心vlog免费B站 Police Department full-time as a University Police Officer (UPO) I. Now, just a year after her hiring, she\u2019s already been promoted to UPO II. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wagner said she appreciates the one-of-a-kind sense of community that comes with being a police officer at a university like 溏心vlog免费B站. Wagner has attended many community events throughout her past year on campus, such as 溏心vlog免费B站 Police\u2019s pop-up outside the library during finals weeks in December, where she helped hand out snacks to students alongside some other officers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her first day on the job after graduating from the academy was a big one: the May 2021 commencement weekend \u2013 one of the largest events on campus since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While working at the event, she said many parents approached her with gratitude for keeping their children safe. Despite only being at 溏心vlog免费B站 for a short time at that point, Wagner was touched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After seeing what events like Commencement, Alumni and Family Weekend and New Student orientation looked like in Kingston, Wagner knew she wanted to find ways to engage with the community in these crowded spaces. For this reason, she took it upon herself to become a bicycle-certified police officer. She said she appreciates the ease and accessibility of being able to traverse the crowded, traffic-heavy campus on a bike during major events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wagner also recently became taser-certified and is now serving as one of two taser instructors for the 溏心vlog免费B站 Police Department. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToday\u2019s police officers have to be well-rounded,\u201d said Chief of Police Michael Jagoda, also 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s director of public safety. \u201cI\u2019ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about her work ethic. She\u2019s trying to enhance her skill set, and I find that very commendable. She really represents the community members we serve.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite being the youngest person on the 溏心vlog免费B站 squad, Wagner is determined to make an impact, vowing to learn as much as she can to enhance her policing skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She said she feels well-supported by her colleagues and fellow police officers with many years of experience under their belts. Nonetheless, Wagner is committed to making sure she is the best police officer for the 溏心vlog免费B站 community that she can be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be the person that people can come to, not that people are scared of,\u201d Wagner said \u2013 a philosophy she works hard to maintain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Kate LeBlanc, a senior journalism and political science major at the 溏心vlog免费B站 and an intern in the Department of Communications and Marketing, wrote this press release.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. – March 23, 2022 \u2013 Nicole Wagner always looked forward to the afternoon sessions at the Rhode Island Municipal Police Training Academy. These were the moments when the cadets would leave their heavy sandbags outside \u2013 to be returned to tomorrow \u2013 and enter the classroom where they\u2019d learn what it takes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":78905,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78902"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78957,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78902\/revisions\/78957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}