Churchill County deputies earn diplomas from POST

Thirty graduates, including two deputies from Fallon, were certified and honored in a recent ceremony held by the Nevada Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training (POST).

The two Churchill County Sheriff deputies were Dustin Beauford and Jason Fenner. Beauford also earned the Physical Fitness and the Outstanding Graduate awards.

Graduates concluded 14 weeks of training in-residence at the POST on the former Stewart Indian School grounds in Carson City. Churchill County Sheriff Ben Trotter said the training is intense and includes coursework, practicums, emergency driving techniques and marksmanship/firearms.

The morning ceremonies featured remarks by Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, the keynote speaker. Hutchison quoted Winston Churchill on courage, cited 9/11 bravery and said peace officer work amounts to an influential role.

“You have influence on other people, so use it well,” he said, adding graduates should do well by doing good, setting examples and following in a proud tradition. “It’s in the great tradition of public service.”

Hutchison said Churchill, Great Britain’s prime minister during World War II, called courage the most important virtue because it makes all other virtues possible. Then Hutchison recounted valor of first responders who entered the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, to save others at great and sometimes fatal peril. He said what’s amazing about peace officers in such circumstances is they don’t think their heroics are amazing.

The ceremony, replete with appropriate peace office panoply that included bagpipes at the start and finish, was held for the POST Academy Class 49/50 in front of POST Building 6 at the Stewart facility.