By Leon Worden/SCVNEWS.com
Julie Oates, a Valencia resident and Burbank police officer, graduated Thursday from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Training Academy with the highest academic scores in her 67-student class.
The Sheriff’s Department trains officers both for its own ranks and for other local policing agencies at its academy in Whittier. Graduating Thursday in a ceremony at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion were 27 female and 26 male sheriff’s deputies, along with three women and 11 men from the Arcadia, Burbank, Culver City, Glendora, Los Angeles School and Torrance police departments.
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After the new officers had their badges pinned on by family members or loved ones, Sheriff Lee Baca swore them in as peace officers.
Special honors went to Oates for academics and to new Sheriff’s Deputy Brittany Moyer of Fontana for the highest overall average based on academics, leadership qualities, marksmanship and physical performance throughout the training period.