Dozens of new cops graduate from Suffolk Police Academy

For eight years, Check Diop served as an infantryman in the U.S. Marine Corps, specializing in combat training and defensive operations.

Diop, who graduated Friday from the Suffolk Police Academy during a ceremony in Brentwood, and who will begin patrolling the Third Precinct Monday, said he's looking forward to using his friendliness and compassion to keep the county safe.

"In the military I was used to more fighting and kicking down doors as opposed to here, where I need to use verbal skills to get out of situations," said Diop, 26, of Queens who was born and raised in Ivory Coast on the coast of West Africa. "But I am most excited about being able to make a difference in someone's life. That's the reason I joined the Marine Corps and it's the main reason I joined the Suffolk County Police Department."

The Academy's 181st recruitment class underwent 31 weeks of physical and classroom training and received more than 1,000 hour of instruction on topics including criminal law, emergency medicine, domestic violence, cultural diversity, anti-bias training, mental illness and counterterrorism.

"Our academy staff takes great pride in training these young officers and giving them the strong foundation and the tools they will need to succeed," said Capt. Steven Rohde, executive officer of the Police Academy Bureau. "We believe they'll go forward intelligently, with precision, professionally and respectfully in collaboration with our communities and that they'll soon be on their way to a successful and rewarding career."

The graduating class included 49 new Suffolk police officers, more than a third of whom have prior law enforcement training and almost half that served in the military.

Nearly a third of the recruits are minorities and all have at least some college education. The class also included 10 new Suffolk deputy sheriffs; two new officers at the Riverhead Police Department and one each at the Shelter Island and Westhampton Beach police departments.

Class president Kyle Simpson, who served six years in the NYPD, based at the 114th Precinct in Astoria, said the academy class was tight knit.

"It was tough at times," said Simpson, 32, of Holtsville, who will be stationed in the Seventh Precinct. "But with everyone in my class here for each other we got through it."

Acting Police Commissioner Stuart Cameron said joining the department "is no small feat … You can say a lot of things about our police academy. That it's challenging and it's difficult and some of you may think it's downright grueling. But the one thing you can't say about our police academy is that it's easy."

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.