Twenty-seven officers, including the police department's first set of identical twins and many with family ties to law enforcement, have graduated from the Prince William County criminal justice academy. The class will send 25 officers to the Prince William County police, a lieutenant to the Prince William Department of Fire and Rescue, and one officer to the U.S. Marine Corps military police.
Aaron and Brandon Hope are the first identical twins to graduate from the academy. The parents of the 22-year-old brothers both work for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Aaron Hope, who is also a volunteer firefighter with the Occoquan-Woodbridge-Lorton Volunteer Fire Department, studied sociology at Virginia Tech. Brandon Hope studied political science at Virginia Tech.
Aaron Hope will patrol western Prince William County and Brandon Hope will be a patrol officer in the eastern part of the county.
Eight other new graduates also have relatives who work in law enforcement. They include 29-year-old Melanie Kent-Knapczyk, whose husband is a Prince William County police sergeant. Kent-Knapczyk graduated from Fauquier High School and worked as an administrative assistant for Prince William police before attending the academy.
The class completed a 24-week course that covered firearms, use-of-force decisions, driving, legal issues, patrol techniques, criminal investigations and other parts of police work.
The president of the recruit class was Bronwyn Jamison, a 27-year-old graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. She served in the Navy before joining the police department and will work patrol in eastern Prince William County.
Sgt. John Covey Jr. was the vice president of the class. Covey, 27, is a Marine Corps military officer and is assigned to the Provost Marshal's Office at Quantico.
The other graduates are new police officers Eric Beard, Ricky Brewer Jr., Stacey Bronisz, Anthony Camerucci, Daniel Crane, Benjamin Fish, Nicoles Freeman, Sarah Furman, Brandon Hodges, Kristina Kressler, Nathaniel Leazer, Kevin MacFarlane, Andres Maradiaga, Ronald McCuin, Abdinasir Noor, Ian Oakes, James Pegram, Elias Rodriguez, Brian Rolle, Andrew Rust and Richard Skoblicki, and fire and rescue Lt. David Cooper.