The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office welcomed five new custody deputies upon their recent graduation from the Allan Hancock CORE Custody Deputy Academy.

Undersheriff Craig Bonner gave the keynote speech on Aug. 25 for the CORE Custody Academy Class 14 that had two independent recruits and five new Sheriff’s Office team members, including Custody Deputies Harai Leon Aguilar, Jose Angelez, Camryn Durnin, Jeremiah Navarro, and Michael Omojoyegbe.

Durnin was named class valedictorian; Navarro was presented with the Santa Maria Elks Lodge Leadership Award; and Aguilar received the Ron Battles award from the Deputy Sheriff’s Association.

Bonner encouraged the graduates to “look for the good in people, and respect yourself and other people. Nobody expects you to be perfect, but we must learn from our mistakes, and we must always strive to do the right thing.”

The class of seven recruits completed 260 hours of instruction, some of which included emergency planning in a custody facility, report writing, ethics, investigation procedures, classification of inmates, contraband detection, arrest and control, physical training, and direct supervision training.

For anyone interested in a law enforcement career or knows someone who is, visit SBSheriff.org to apply.