IN LINE TO SERVE TEEN CADETS STEP CLOSER TO JOINING RANKS OF L.A.'S FINEST.

Byline: SUSAN ABRAM Staff Writer

The badges they wore as they marched onto the graduation field Friday morning read: ``Preparing to Serve.''

For some of the 130 cadets at the Los Angeles Police Academy Magnet School program, those words may one day read: ``To Protect and To Serve.''

``We certainly hope you become police officers because there is no better career,'' a proud Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said as he surveyed the rows of graduates -- high school police cadets clad in crisp, light-blue shirts and ties.

``It's a career in which you can give back, in which you can make a difference,'' Bratton said. ``If the department is to continue to be successful, we need more women and men like you from the city of Los Angeles.''

Hundreds of proud parents and relatives armed with digital cameras, bouquets and balloons attended the ceremony at the academy at Elysian Park.

Many of the graduating cadets had been enrolled in the magnet program at Mulholland Middle School, then continued on through one of five Los Angeles Unified School District high schools: Dorsey, Monroe, Reseda, San Pedro and Wilson.

The teens learned drills and honor-guard duties, took classes in forensics and criminology and volunteered hundreds of hours of community service across the city.

Friday's was the largest graduating class since the program began 10 years ago. With funding by 21st Century Insurance, the LAPD and former school board member Roberta Weintraub launched the program as a way to prepare teens for a future in law enforcement.

Those who led the ceremony said it couldn't be a better time to enter the profession.

Last week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a $6.7 billion city budget that includes a residential trash-pickup fee to generate money to hire 1,000 more officers over the next five years.

``I can't wait to see where you'll be, where you'll lead us,'' Villaraigosa told the cadets. ``The idea that some of you would take that position fills my heart. Make no mistake, it's a tough job. Yet what could be more of a reward to say you work for the LAPD, America's finest.''

But the department also is facing one of its toughest years, with some 18 officers fired upon since January, compared with eight during the first half of 2005. Just last week, Officer Kristina Ripatti, 33, was paralyzed in a shootout with an armed robbery suspect.

Actor Erik Estrada, best known for his portrayal as California Highway Patrol Officer Frank ``Ponch'' Poncherello on the hit television series ``CHiPs,'' choked back tears as he described the pride he felt for the cadets and their parents.

During the keynote speech, he recalled dreaming of a career in law enforcement while growing up in New York City's Spanish Harlem.

``I'm a closet cop,'' he said. ``I envy you and what you've learned already at your age. If I had had this, I probably would have been a New York City cop right now. You'll be hitting the streets in the future to show compassion, to show love.''

After Bratton performed a formal uniform inspection of each cadet, the graduates tossed their caps into the air and embraced the classmates they had served with for six years.

``When I started this program, I really wasn't interested, but it's very inspirational,'' said a jovial Oscar Fuentes, an 18-year-old graduate from Reseda High School. ``I'm going to work and then when I'm 21, become a police officer.''

For Stephanie Osorio, a 17-year-old also from Reseda, entering the magnet program was a chance to help her family with college expenses.

``My sister and I are raised by a single mother, and they said this program would help us,'' she said. ``I want to go on to help people, either as a social worker or as a probation officer.''

John Alvarez beamed with pride as his 17-year-old son, Johnny Alvarez Jr., prepared to graduate. While he was proud of what his namesake has accomplished, he still has reservations about his son eventually becoming a police officer.

``He's my only son,'' he said. ``I want him to go to school. But if he wants to do this, then that's what he wants. He's a man.''

susan.abram(at)dailynews.com

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4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Cadets receive a final inspection before the start of the Los Angeles Police Academy Magnet School's graduation ceremony in Elysian Park on Friday morning. With 130 cadets, this year's class was the largest since the program began 10 years ago.

(3 -- color) Caps already having sailed through the air, cadets embrace after the graduation comes to an end Friday in Elysian Park.

(4) LAPD Chief William Bratton -- here congratulating a cadet during the magnet school graduation Friday -- encouraged graduates to become officers in the future ``because there is no better career.''

Alex Collins/Special to the Daily News