For Immediate Release

Friday, Aug. 30, 2019

Contact: Kelsey Bode
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: kelsey@jgpr.net

Rockport Police Celebrate Recent Police Academy Graduates

ROCKPORT — Chief John Horvath is pleased to share that the Rockport Police Department held a graduation reception yesterday for Officers Edwin Waldsmith and Ken Pedone, who each graduated from the Reading Police Academy earlier this month.

“Edwin and Ken are both genuine people, and because of that I expect they’ll be great police officers,” Chief Horvath said. “Ken is excellent at motor vehicle enforcement and police work of that nature, and Edwin is highly skilled with technology. Both of them have skills that our department will benefit from for years to come. They’ve been with us for a number of years, and now having them full time feels like a natural progression.”

The reception was held at the Rockport Police Department on Main Street. Friends, family and members of the Rockport community were invited to attend, and light refreshments were served. Town Administrator Mitchell Vieira and Selectmen Don Campbell and Ruth George also attended the event.

Officers Waldsmith and Pedone graduated from the Reading Police Academy on Tuesday, Aug. 13. Both officers have previously served the department as permanent intermittent police officers, and Officer Waldsmith also served as a civilian dispatcher prior to his appointment as a full time police officer on Feb. 3. Officer Pedone was appointed as a full time police officer on Feb. 10.

“My family has always instilled in me the ‘help the community’ mindset,” Officer Waldsmith said. “As a sophomore in high school, I participated in the Student Trooper Program with the Massachusetts State Police, and after that, I knew I wanted to go into policing.”

“I’ve wanted to be a police officer since I was a kid,” Officer Pedone said. “I’m particularly interested in investigations, and would like to eventually explore detective work.”

Officers Waldsmith and Pedone will both be assigned to patrols in their new roles, as well as a variety of other policing responsibilities.

The Reading Police Academy opened in October 1997. It is one of five Municipal Police Training Committee police academies, and it offers complete recruit and in-service police academy courses including a Basic Recruit training and Reserve Intermittent courses, with weekly in-service classes running from September through June each year for veteran police officers. Police officers from 45 communities north of Boston train there regularly.  It is located on the site of the Massachusetts Army National Guard’s Camp Curtis.

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