BRATTLEBORO — Police candidate Michael Cable left for the Vermont Police Academy in Pittsford on Monday. Sixteen weeks of intense training later he expects to return as a local police officer.
And he'll have met a goal he's aspired to since he was a kid.
Cable, 22, has always wanted a position in law enforcement. This Putney resident, who grew up in and around Brattleboro, said becoming a police officer in his home town has been his dream for years.
“I'm eager to give back to the place that raised me,” he told The Commons last Friday. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, and with his black dress shoes polished and buffed to a military shine, he said he was in the pre-academy phase, and won't have earned the right to wear a police uniform until after graduation.
And graduation itself is will be a beginning of sorts. He'll have to excel in local field training as well. But he looks forward to it, particularly foot patrols.
For Cable, good policing means interacting with the public and being seen on the street. That helps deter crime, he explained.
Foot patrols also will let him show the community that police officers are “willing to show we all do care.”
Cable admitted with a smile that, as a kid, he imagined himself as a police officer because he liked the department's “cool cars.” But as an adult he interviewed with the department in hopes of being able to give back to the community.
The interview that saw him accepted to the academy was actually his second interview with the Brattleboro Police Department: The first time he interviewed, as a Brattleboro Union High School student, he was too young for the force.
So, intent on meeting his goal, he participated for four years in the BPD's cadet program. He also held a five month internship with the Department in his senior year.
Cable also is four years into an initial six-year service commitment with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, which lets him serve in the military close to home.
A senior airman and an avionics specialist, Cable troubleshoots and replaces faulty computer components on the 104th Fighter Wing's F-15C Eagle tactical fighter jets at Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield, Mass.
Cable also has served one tour of duty overseas in an “undisclosed location” when the 104th was activated in 2012 for a three-month deployment in support of combat operations in Afghanistan.
In reflecting on his greatest challenge in law enforcement and the Guard, Cable identified “a little shyness.” As a cadet, he said, he used to feel uncomfortable speaking on the radio, as everyone would hear if he messed up.
He's certainly not shy about his goals at the Police Academy: Cable says he intends to stand at the top of the class. As a police officer, he hopes to join BPD's Special Reaction Team.