3 Mokena Police Recruits Graduate From Academy, Begin 3-Month Training

MOKENA, IL — The Mokena Police Department will soon add to its ranks as three local officers graduated from the Suburban Law Enforcement Academy after completing 14 weeks of training, police officials announced on Monday.

Recruit Officers Richard Criscione, Antonio Mavrogiannis, and Connor DeButch graduated from the academy on Friday and will now spend about three months in the Mokena Police Department's Field Training Program, according to police chief Brian Benton.

Criscione received the George P. Graves Award which is granted to the officer recruit that displays the highest level of integrity, character, dedication, and ethics. He finished atop a class of 70 recruits, Benton said.

The three officers will now begin their Field Training Program with Mokena Police. Over the next three months, the officers will be assigned a field training officer and will work a variety of shifts, rotating monthly with a new training officer each month. They will eventually go through a short shadow phase where they will be evaluated on whether they are ready to be released to solo patrol, Benton said.

This graduating class is the last to go through a 14-week academy. Starting January 1, the law changes, and the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board now requires 16 weeks of academy training.

Mokena’s police department has also now had back-to-back officers who received the Graves Award. In the July 2022 graduating class, Mokena police officer Bethany Espinosa was selected to receive the honor. In that same class, Mokena Police Officer Kevin Buswell was selected to receive the Raymond A. Murrell Leadership Award.

The department has hired six new officers this year and has one more scheduled to report to the academy in January.