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Doctor does double duty as police officer
(by Joan Demirjian - January 29, 2009)
Doctor does double duty as police officer
By JOAN DEMIRJIAN
Dr. Ian Beckford, who specializes in family medicine, said that all his life he admired the work of law-enforcement officers, taking risks to keep the public safe.
"I always wondered what it would be like," he said of the job. Now, he has that opportunity.
Dr. Beckford, a Solon resident, has been in training since last October as an officer with the Bainbridge Police Department. He is halfway through his in-service training and will be working part time for the department.
Dr. Beckford, 36, said he had ridden with police in Aurora and Twinsburg to learn what police work would be like. That was prior to training for certification.
When he went to police training at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, one of the instructors, Brian Reardon, told him to check out the Bainbridge Police Department.
Dr. Beckford said his position at Metrohealth Broadway Health Center in Cleveland gives him the flexibility to work part time at the police department. He works at the center from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. three days per week.
Now, he is doing his in-service work with full-time training officers, including Brian Frew, Jon Bodovitz and Sgt. Kurt Dreger.
The aspect of solving crimes and keeping people safe appeals to him, Dr. Beckford said. "Safety is one of those things people take for granted." Providing the public that safety involves a risk, and there is gratification in filling that role, he said.
"I like the unpredictability of the work and meeting interesting people and situations."
Last week, he and his training officer responded to a car fire on Route 422, he said. "We were driving around when there was an alert to police, fire and paramedics. We made sure fire and ambulance were able to get to the scene," Dr. Beckford said. "We assisted by controlling traffic and made sure the scene was safe." No one was injured in the incident.
In the short time he has been in training, Dr. Beckford has been "pretty much all over the township," he said.
That has been a challenge in itself, he said of learning the location of roads and their names. His goal now is to know all the streets, so he doesn't have to refer to a map. He practices by picking a subdivision and then drawing all the roads in it by memory, he said. "I want to focus on what I do, not how to get there."
He also keeps index cards with the road names on them. He draws them randomly from a stack and tests his memory on how to get to that road. The tricky aspect is that many of them are similar with nature names, he said.
Dr. Beckford said some people are surprised by his decision to take on police work on the side. However, he said, "I enjoy medicine, but I still want to see what it would be like to be a police officer."
Once people understand he is doing both and not giving up medicine, they are enthusiastic, he said. "They relate to it." Everyone says they too have other interests they would love to explore and pursue, he said.
Working in urgent care, he does not have designated patients and is not on call, he said.
It is shift work, and he does not have to follow up with patients who go on to their primary-care doctors. That arrangement gives him the opportunity to work at his job, he said.
Dr. Beckford has been practicing medicine since 2001. His interest in medicine began early as well. In middle school and high school, he enjoyed science, especially biology, and volunteered in a hospital.
He and his wife, Rita, have two sons, 7 years old and 18 months old. His older son has visited the Bainbridge Police Station, toured the jail and sat in a police car. "It's every boy's dream at some point," Dr. Beckford said.
When he is not working, he spends time with his family, which enjoys traveling, he said.
Born in Jamaica, Dr. Beckford moved with his family to the United States when he was 11 years old. He grew up in New York, he said.
He liked science as a teenager and volunteered in programs in high school, following doctors, he said. "It was fascinating."
Later, he attended medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He did his residency in Dayton and at University Hospitals of Cleveland, where he specialized in family medicine.
Bainbridge Police Chief James Jimison said the department had a need for a part-time officer when Dr. Beckford stopped in to inquire about a position.
Dr. Beckford was certified through his training at Lakeland and is now completing his in-service training. It is a minimum of three months, Mr. Jimison said. "He's grasping the job very quickly. "He is very conscientious."
Dr. Beckford said that, because of the flexibility of his job in medicine, "I hope to enjoy police work for a long time to come."
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