New Saugus cop sworn in

SAUGUS – Tom Wilson said he always knew his son would go into some type of public service so it didn’t surprise him or his wife Linda, watching Thursday as Thomas Wilson was sworn in as the town’s newest police officer.”I could not be prouder, we’re floating up here,” he said, raising his hand chest high.Thomas Wilson graduated from the police academy Wednesday in Liberty Hall in Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall. He was only one of three Saugus officers sent for training who finished.According to Police Chief Domenic DiMella one officer dropped out of the program due to injury and the other chose to discontinue the program. While it is frustrating for the department to lose two other potential recruits, in the end it worked out. Due to budget cuts DiMella said he would have only been able to maintain one position which would have left two newly trained patrolmen ripe for layoffs.Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said despite the new hire the department is still 10 officers short.”It’s been a roller coaster, up and down,” he said regarding staffing levels.Wilson, a 2002 Saugus High School graduate, said he was simply grateful to have a job. He said he’d been waiting to attend the academy for some time and when the opportunity presented itself he jumped at it.He called the 26-week program a challenge but worthwhile.”I’ve been through stuff like this before,” he said. “I knew what was expected of me, you just have to get through it.”Wilson left a post with the Department of Corrections as a guard at MCI Cedar Junction, the state’s maximum security prison in Walpole to pick up the spot in the academy. Prior to Cedar Junction he put in a four-year stint with the Coast Guard.Wilson attended the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority academy, which some said is more difficult than the regular academy. DiMella said because of the timing of the hire as it turned out that was the only academy class coming into session.DiMella called Wilson’s graduation ceremony an impressive show of pomp and circumstance, very military like and precise. And he admitted it brought him back to his own days of going through the academy.”It’s a sense of satisfaction when you complete the academy,” he said. “Then there’s the anticipation once you start the real position about what it will be like.”DiMella said the academy was merely building blocks for the real thing. Wilson will also go through 10 weeks of on-the-job field training with three different officers who will put him through the paces on three different shifts, the 9 a.m.-5 p.m., 5 p.m.-1 a.m. and 1 a.m.-9 a.m.”It’s to give him a feel for all the shifts and to meet all the guys,” DiMella said. “Policing is a little different with each shift.”Tom Wilson said he thinks being a police officer has always been in the back of his son’s mind.”My brother (Dave Wilson) is a police officer in Revere,” he said. “I think he always looked up to that. He always wanted to do some kind of public service.”