Cincinnati's newest police recruits started classes Monday with a welcome from their new boss on the first day of more than five months of lessons.

        Though at least one of the 40 officers did not show up, the group remains the largest in recent years — in part because three members who were in the last class returned from military duty and are starting over.

        The path to their first day Monday started in October of 2000 when they were among 934 people who took the Cincinnati Police Department's written exam. Since then, they've taken polygraph tests, had their backgrounds investigated and practiced for the physical agility tests.

        “We've been working with these people for 16 months,” said recruiting Sgt. Tom Waller. “So we look forward to them getting started.”

        Most are local, coming from private employment, other police departments and the Hamilton County Sheriff's corrections office. But some came from a distance to sign up here: Chris Campo, who had been a New York City police recruit; David Jenkins, who was a corrections officer in Vermont; and Jody Dillinger, who worked at a nuclear power plant near Ashtabula, Ohio.

        Stats for the 92nd recruit class:

        • Thirty-one are men, nine women; 11, eight men and three women, are African-American.

        • The oldest is 43, the youngest 21, the minimum age.

        • Twenty-seven have attended college, 12 have degrees, two have master's degrees. Nine have been in the military.

        Some of the names are familiar, with other family members already on the department: Brian Bolte, son of Capt. Mike Bolte, who commanded last summer's Violent Crimes Task Force; Derrick Edwards, whose mother, Vinnie, is a police officer; and Dennis Zucker, whose retired-cop father and his mother both work in dispatch.

        Chief Tom Streicher introduced them to the rest of his command staff and welcomed them to the department for which he has worked more than 30 years.

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