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YPD swears in four new officers
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The swearing-in of four new city police officers could not have had more of a hometown feeling if the city had tried.
All four new officers are natives and residents of Youngstown. All four also graduated from the police academy at Youngstown State University. And all four of them said their goal in law enforcement was to work for the city.
And two of the four – John O’Neill Jr., 21, and John Wess, 24, – also are following in the footsteps of their fathers, who are longtime veterans of the city’s safety-service forces.
O’Neill’s father is city Fire Chief John O’Neill. Wess’ father is Joe Wess, a city patrolman for more than 37 years who patrolled a North Side beat and was popular with his colleagues for his outgoing, loquacious personality.
The other two officers who were sworn in Friday in city council chambers are Steven Gibson, 29, who was a military policeman for five years in the Army, and Darrick Ball, 25, who was a police officer in Campbell for two years before coming to Youngstown.
The elder O’Neill said his son has always wanted to be a police officer. “It’s his dream,” the elder O’Neill said.
His son said his family has a long history of serving in the city’s safety-service forces, and he said he wanted to continue that tradition.
“This is really what interests me,” he said. “This is what I saw myself doing.”
John Wess said he was heavily influenced by his father in making his career choice.
“I saw his impact that his job had on everyone in the city,” Wess said.
Joe Wess said at first he told his son when learning of his career choice, “You see what I went through?” But then he said he was proud of his son, and he told him to pay attention his first year and learn as much as he can.
Chief O’Neill said he gave similar advice to his son.
Ball also had an ally on his side in former city Detective Sgt. Delphine Baldwin-Casey, who is retired but was helping Campbell with diversity training.
She said when she found out Ball signed up to take the civil-service test, she urged Chief Robin Lees to hire him because he stood out during the training.
Ball said working for the city was what he always wanted to do. “This is where I wanted to be,” Ball said.
Gibson said his military experience has imparted in him the importance of doing everything well all the time.
“It taught me the importance of the integrity of the job and integrity in how to do things,” Gibson said.
Ed Villone, commander of the YSU police academy, brought his cadets to the ceremony.
Villone said he was excited that all four graduates were working in Youngstown, and he credited O’Neill and Gibson, who both recently graduated, as being the leaders of their class.
The four officers give the city 15 new hires for the year.
They offset a number of retirements as well as a number of transfers of officers from patrol to serve in the new Community Policing Unit put together by Lees.
The new hires will be assigned a field-training officer for their first four months on the job, working with an officer on each shift, before they will be assigned a beat of their own.