University Police Department Chief Ken Barnett swore in six people to join Sacramento’s campus police force in a public ceremony Friday afternoon in the University Union.

The six people included two dispatchers, Katrina Donato and Stephanie Gil, and four police officers, Jeff Solomon, Matt Kroner, Jonathan Parker and Augustin Yaya.

Barnett opened the ceremony by saying how important it is to keep the swearing-in public.

“It’s important, because people might be thinking about changing professions,” he said. “This is a tough profession.”

“I think we’re seeing a change in philosophy (among new recruits), and I believe that people are now looking at this because of the strain, the dedication and the integrity that you have to hold,” Barnett said. “As a police officer, a police dispatcher or anyone really in the police organization, you have to keep a level of integrity. … Without integrity, the whole profession suffers.”

He expressed appreciation for the efforts and hard work that each person had contributed, saying that they worked to make this a better campus and a better society for us all.

The ceremony also introduced the new personnel to the audience.

“First, I’d like to start with dispatch,” Barnett said. “A lot of the time, dispatch and dispatchers are looked upon as support mechanisms to police officers, which they are, but it’s one of the most critical positions within the department.”

“(Donato and Gil) are already working well more than eight-hour shifts or 40-hour work weeks. They’re the life support for our campus and for our emergency preparedness situations,” he said.

Donato previously worked for the Sacramento Police Department as a full-time dispatcher. She started her employment with the University Police Department as a part-time dispatcher in late 2005. She became full-time in July, Barnett said.

Gil graduated from Sacramento State in 2005 with a degree in criminal justice. While she was a student here, she worked as a community service officer for the Police Department. She applied for a part-time dispatch job in January, and then applied for full-time in October, Barnett said.

Gil said that interest in the CSI shows pushed her toward majoring in criminal justice.

“I started as a CSO in 2003, and I liked the department,” Gil said. “When I graduated, they needed people in dispatch, so it seemed like the right position to fall into.”

The next two are already police officers but are being promoted to corporal, Barnett said.

Solomon first started as a police officer 11 years ago, since then working as a Deputy Sheriff for the Placer County Sheriff’s Department, a manager/supervisor for the Grant Unified School District Police Department and an officer for the University Police Department since 2004, Barnett said.

“Matt Kroner kind of has an interesting career,” he said. “He came, went and returned.”

Kroner started his career in law enforcement with the University Police Department in 2000. He has been a field training officer in the department for several years and has also worked as an officer for the Yuba City Police Department, Barnett said.

Parker, one of the new officers, is originally from Red Bluff, where he started his career in public service as a lifeguard.

He decided on law enforcement while employed as a cadet in the Redding Police Department. He attended and graduated from Butte Police Academy in December 2005, where he received the award for best report writer, Barnett said.

Yaya began his law enforcement career as an officer in Peru. He attended the Sacramento City Police Department academy and joined university police in May, Barnett said.

“I come from a family of police officers,” Yaya said. “I pretty much grew up in a police-officer environment. I guess that was the only thing in my mind since I was a kid.”

The ceremony closed after the reading of the oath, which affirmed United States citizenship, the upholding of its laws and Constitution, California law and the rules and regulations of the California State University Board of Trustees.

According to campus police, the university has 20 state police officers supplemented by other law enforcement support personnel.

Tom Roberts can be reached at [email protected].