Colin Vanicolo and Jonathan DeLeon became the Kennett Township Police Department’s newest officers over the last 19 months, but COVID-19 prevented their families from watching them be sworn in.
Their families got that chance on Sept. 15 during a special swearing-in ceremony, held outside the township building.
The officers, according to Kennett Township Police Chief Matt Gordon, were “sworn in during COVID originally, but the families never had a chance to be here.”
Kennett Township Manager Eden Ratliff told the families to remember how special that moment was and to remind the officers of that when times are tough.
“You need to remember this moment, how you’re feeling right now, how proud you are,” he said, calling police work a difficult job. “So when they’re down, when they’re tired … they’re going to lean on you, and they’re going to need to be reminded of how special this moment was. Remind them why they got into this.”
Judge Albert Iacocca (District 15-3-04), who swore in Vanicolo and DeLeon, called them professional and a great example of community patrolling.
“They make this place safer but also a better place to live,” he said.
Vanicolo graduated from West Chester University in 2017, the police academy in 2018, and began working for the Westtown East Goshen and Kennett Square police departments in 2019. Vanicolo, who joined the Kennett Township force in July 2020, is also a track and field coach at his alma mater, according to the township’s spring newsletter.
DeLeon, a native New Yorker who graduated from Lower Merion High School, joined Kennett Township’s police force in March 2021 and is the third Spanish-speaking officer in the department, according to Gordon.
“Officer DeLeon came to us from Philadelphia and Delaware County,” Gordon said. “It’s his first police job, but he’s been involved in various fire services in Delaware County.”
About Monica Fragale
Monica Thompson Fragale is a freelance reporter who spent her life dreaming of being in the newspaper business. That dream came true after college when she started working at The Kennett Paper and, years later The Reporter newspaper in Lansdale and other dailies. She turned to non-profit work after her first daughter was born and spent the next 13 years in that field. But while you can take the girl out of journalism, you can’t take journalism out of the girl. Offers to freelance sparked the writing bug again started her fingers happily tapping away on the keyboard. Monica lives with her husband and two children in Kennett Square.
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