LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department has welcomed another new officer.
Officer Mark Steele began work on Monday.
Steele, 31, grew up in the Santa Rosa area and attended Windsor High School.
He isn't new to working as a first responder. The job he just left was as a paramedic at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
The position with the Lakeport Police Department is his first in law enforcement.
“I wanted to help people in a different way,” Steele said of his decision to become a police officer.
He said he appreciated the opportunity to work in a small community like Lakeport.
Steele is in a weeklong orientation, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Next week, Steele will begin a 14-week training period during which he will be accompanied by a field training officer, Rasmussen said. Once that training is complete, Steele will begin working on his own.
At the start of the city of Lakeport's National Night Out block party on Tuesday, Steele was sworn in, with Rasmussen administering the oath.
Steele's cousin, a Mendocino County Sheriff's deputy, was on hand to pin Steele's badge on him.
Steele is the latest of several new hires to fill out the department's ranks.
Officer Victor Rico started in May and Joseph Medici started work in June. Two officer trainees who were hired earlier this year, Dale Hoskins and Andrew Welter, are due to graduate from the police academy later this month.
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