10 civilians ready for MCAS law enforcement duty

  Not much has changed for officer Jordan Rogers, the new deputy provost marshal at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, other than he is a civilian now.

  "It's actually pretty funny. I still have the same desk, chair and computer I used to have. When I logged on for the first time, my old screensaver even loaded up."

  Rogers is one of 10 newly hired civilian police officers who graduated on Thursday afternoon from a 10-week training academy.

  "I got a call from Capt. (Larry) Vines about the job," said Rogers, who was in Utah at the time. "He asked me if I wanted it and I said yes and got in my car and drove for 12 hours to get back down here."

  Ironically, Rogers was the deputy provost marshal at MCAS before he left the Corps in 2007. Now he holds the same position he had while in the Marines, but this time as a civilian.

  As each of the new officers' names were called, they walked up on the stage, where they were given their diplomas and had their badges pinned on to their uniform by provost marshal Vines.

  "This class has certainly exceeded my expectations in their professionalism," Vines said. "This is the first time in the Marine Corps' history that civilians will perform law enforcement duties on Marine Corps bases.

  "The expectations I'm placing on these civilian police officers is no different than the expectations that I have placed on the military police officers and other security augments."

  The graduation ceremony was being held inside the air station's movie theater.

  All 10 of the civilian police officer graduates have military backgrounds and most of them had prior law enforcement experience, Vines said.

  In addition to the badge pinning, awards were given to the class' top performers.

  Officer Jason Nessler received the highest shooter award, Derry Monroe the physical achievement award and Joshua Michaels the overall leadership award.

  Rogers was recognized for two awards: academic achievement and distinguished graduate.

  During the opening of the ceremony, Vines said it will take an institutional mindset change to ensure the program succeeds.

  As part of a Marine Corps-wide initiative, the Yuma air station is hiring and training 65 civilians who will serve as on-base police officers . The civilian police officers will have the same authority on base as their military police counterparts.

  The civilian police officers, who will start to work Tuesday, will serve on the provost marshal's current all-Marine force on base. The provost marshal force is essentially the on-base police office, and the provost marshal is its police chief.

  The Marine Corps plans to hire 1,300 civilian officers over the next three years to serve on the Marines' 14 bases within the United States.

  In addition to the remaining 25 hirings this year, Vines said the base plans to hire 15 civilian police in fiscal year 2009 and another 15 in fiscal year 2010.

  Rogers said he will spend the next few weeks interviewing and hiring the next group of civilian police officers.

   The next training academy is scheduled to begin around September and conclude sometime in late November.

  "The military police are excited about this because it's going to be taking some of the burden off of them," Rogers said.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.