PROFILES OF 3 RECRUITS : Smallest of Recruits Proves an Arresting One

What kind of people do police agencies in Orange County want to recruit? Says Susan Saxe-Clifford, a forensic psychologist who works for the county Sheriff’s Department:

“Someone who is mature, responsible, physically fit, understands what the job is about, has prepared well for a career, has good relationships in his or her personal life, is articulate and has a stable job history. And a sense of humor too.”

Staff writer Jerry Hicks prepared profiles of three recent honors recruits of the county Sheriff’s Training Academy.

At 5 feet, 4 inches, Suzanne Doucet worried that police training might be too physically demanding, but the diminutive Riverside college student decided to plunge ahead anyway. She learned that police work was more art than physical force. The smallest member of the class, she won the award for best in arrest procedures.

Doucet had been an excellent student through school and college, but that wasn’t much help when it came to the physical aspects of the training academy.

So she spent extra time in the weight room, hours and hours lifting weights and doing push-ups. And at night, on her own, she would practice arrest techniques--taking a suspect’s gun away, or handcuffing someone--which the class had gotten instruction on during the day.

“I’d run through it in my mind outside class, over and over,” she said. “I learned that it’s not strength that counts; it’s technique and skill.”

It all paid off when Doucet took the arrest procedure award for her class at graduation ceremonies.

Doucet, 22, received a degree from UC Riverside in administrative studies and political science. She is working for the Anaheim Police Department.

Doucet had feared that she would be intimidated by the paramilitary nature of the training. But she found out, to her surprise, that she wasn’t.

“They make it tough, but you know the things they teach you will be important to you later on,” she said.