Newest members of Lockport Police Department ready to serve community

Benjamin Joe |, Lockport Union-Sun & Journal, N.Y.
Updated ·2 min read
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Mar. 29—Two new recruits of the Lockport Police Department are a month in at the police academy. At the same time, LPD also took on a former Medina police patrol officer to round out hiring for this year.

Corey Gelnett, 21, Will Diebel, 27, and Steve Gross, 31, all come to the job ready to meet the high expectations that they said the Lockport Police Department has for them.

Gross, the Medina police officer and former school resource officer in the Medina, Barker and Royalton-Hartland school districts, said, "The (Lockport police) department has a focus on improving the quality of life of people in the community, while still maintaining a safe community to live in."

Gelnett said his role model was his uncle, Steven Ritchie, who was a K-9 police officer. He said Ritchie was deeply invested in Lockport's community and the people he knew. He said he soon found out that was a piece of what being a police officer is all about.

"I did a ride-along in college where I saw a lot of the community engagement the officer was a part of," Gelnett said.

A Lockport High School graduate, Gelnett majored in criminal justice at Canisius College before taking the civil service exam in Lockport.

Diebel is also from Lockport, graduated from LHS and went on to Buffalo State where he also majored in criminal justice. For him, an athlete, the job is all about helping people. His influences, he said, were his own coaches and his father — a corrections officers.

"I have always been interested (in law enforcement)," he said.

Right now the police academy students are doing all the "legal stuff."

"Penal law and vehicle and traffic," Gelmett said. "Basic principals of those areas."

For goals, Gelmett and Diebell both said they were just doing one thing after another. After graduating, they intend to do the best they can for field training and from there "get into the job," Diebell said.

For Gross, who lives in Buffalo, he said he's also just trying to "get into the job."

"In five, six years, ask me again," he said. "Right now I'm just trying to be a dependable patrol (officer)."