Thirty-three recruits graduated Friday at the police academy in Brentwood, and are now part of the Suffolk County Police Department.

The new police officers completed 30 hours of academy training and received 1,000 hours of instructions.

Suffolk Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart told the graduates that “we expected and demanded the best, and you delivered.”

Kevin Vega, 24, of Brentwood, says he always wanted to be a police officer. He says the police gave him comfort when he didn’t feel safe walking home from school due to gang activity.

“When I would see the Suffolk police cars parked on the corner, it always put me at ease and made me feel more comfortable and I would know I would get home safe,” he told News 12. “I wanted to do that for somebody else and inspire other kids to be police officers as well.”