GREENFIELD — For the first time, a Greenfield police chief was the guest speaker for the Monterey South Bay Police Academy in Salinas last month.
“Being a police officer is a lot of things,” said Greenfield Chief Denise Oglesby at the academy’s graduation ceremony Oct. 25. “It can be exhilarating at times. If you do this job right, it will bring you rewards you can’t get anywhere else.”
Oglesby became a police officer after watching the TV show “Police Woman” with Angie Dickinson, who was her hero, when she was growing up. Dickinson worked undercover on the show, chased bad guys and had fun while doing it.
Oglesby encouraged the new police graduates to have courage and to rely on their training. She emphasized that mental preparedness would come into place as police officers would be faced with different situations each day and try to figure out how they should handle those situations.
“I’ve been an athlete my entire life, and I’ve made it part of my life,” Oglesby said. “You need some physical fitness activity to balance your lifestyle. You can’t keep it all inside.”
The badge is a symbol of authority and is something Oglesby takes seriously.
At the graduation, Oglesby welcomed two new Greenfield police officers from the Police Academy Class 146, Officers Bryan De La Torre and Marc Martin Del Campo.
