Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Deputies Kelvin Samuel, Dwayne Rice and Cody Olliff completed the 40th basic training class of the Caddo Sheriff’s Regional Training Academy in Shreveport Nov. 21.

Graduation exercises were held at the Calvary Baptist Church. The guest speaker was Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator. He talked about the importance of training in law enforcement and stressed to graduates to always do their jobs with honesty and integrity, to be professional and compassionate.

NPSO Deputy Kelvin Samuel was awarded the Leadership Award.
Graduates took the oath of office, received their badges, and participated in a special ceremony where family and friends assisted them with pinning on their badges for the first time.

Class participants received 360 hours or more of peace officer training in areas including law, patrol activities, traffic services, report writing, investigations, firearms, first aid, and criminal justice.
Deputies Samuel, Rice and Olliff will return to the Natchitoches Parish Sheriff’s Office for additional in-house training in policy and procedure, report writing, National Incident Command Systems, communications training and assigned to a Field Training Officer before they are released to patrol and other duties in Natchitoches Parish.

Sheriff Victor Jones Jr., Chief of Patrols Doug Rachal, Captain Tony Moran, Asst. Chief of Children Services and SRO Division Siggie Silvie Jr., Sgt. Sammy Ragan, family and friends attended the graduation services and welcomed the new deputies to the NPSO team.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the academy bell was rang in honor of each law enforcement officer killed in the Line of Duty in the State of Louisiana this past year.

From the left are: Sheriff Victor Jones, Deputy Cody Olliff, Deputy Kelvin Samuel, Deputy Dwayne Rice, and Chief Doug Rachal. On back row are Captain Tony Moran, Chief Siggie Silvie, and Sgt. Samuel Ragan.