SWAMPSCOTT — The Swampscott Police Department welcomed a new police officer to the force Tuesday evening, Briana Reder. She is now the second woman on the current force and the first Swampscott police officer to use the department’s own testing system.
Reder graduated from the Lynnfield MPTC Academy Tuesday and was the First Recruit Officer Course class president. After the ceremony she said it felt amazing to have graduated.
“All the hard work that not only I put in, but our instructors and the rest of our class over the last 24 weeks, it feels unreal that it all has led up to this right now,” Reder said.
Reder is the first Swampscott police officer to join the department after using its own testing system outside of the civil service system. Town Meeting members voted for the fire and police departments to leave the civil service system back in November 2020.
The civil service examination is given to applicants through the state and their acceptance into the police force was dependent on those test scores. Now, Police Chief Ruben Quesada said their new system allows anyone to apply.
“We can select anybody of the best applicants from the candidate pool,” Quesada said. “It means we are selecting the most qualified, the most ethnically diverse, you name it.”
Reder is also the second woman to join the current force and said she feels “honored” to be working with other strong females in town.
Officer Candace Doyle is the other woman currently on Swampscott’s police force and has been the only new female officer to join since 2001, she said. There have been other women on the force she has worked with but they have retired.
Doyle said she is “ecstatic” to have Reder on the force.
“I can’t wait, it’s a great experience. I think we already have a good bond and stuff like that so I’m super excited to just share this whole experience with someone else,” Doyle said. “They say, you know, breaking the glass ceiling, well [Reder] shattered it.”
For Reder, being in law enforcement is something she has always wanted to be part of.
“My father was a correctional officer and he always instilled in me the traits that a police officer should have, hard work and high integrity levels,” Reder said. “And my entire life I worked for this moment.”
Reder’s first official shift with the department will be on Thursday. To the people of Swampscott, she said, “I am extremely honored and excited to be able to serve my community and be there for everyone.”
