LAKEWOOD — Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office recruit Nick Fratto has a little more on his plate than the other 46 people currently going through the
Fratto is blogging once a week about his experiences at the academy, where he will be for 22 weeks while training to become a Jeffco Sheriff’s deputy.
While Fratto, 25, is wrapping up his sixth week, as an idea generated by the communications department of the sheriff’s office to give a glimpse of what recruits are going through and also introduce them to the public.
A Jeffco Sheriff’s Office recruit always maintains the blog, but there are also recruits at this academy from Arvada, Golden, Lakewood, Littleton, Lone Tree, Westminster and Wheat Ridge police departments. Twenty-five of the recruits will become Jeffco Sheriff’s deputies.
“We want people to get to know him and get to know the other officers because they’re going to be seeing them,” said Dionne Waugh, digital communications officer for the Jeffco Sheriff’s Office. “And we want people to know what we teach them.”
Fratto volunteered to write the blog after reading a previous recruit’s entries when trying to prepare for the upcoming academy.
He said the blog helped him have an idea of what to expect and what he would have to through over the next several months.
“I liked the idea of writing a blog because I know how well it helped me and I hope it will help other people in the future,” Fratto said.
Academy director Phil Baca said the academy is the hardest thing any of the recruits have gone through — even if they went to graduate school — and said the blog can be a form of stress relief for the blogger.
“For those who get to write about it, it’s kind of cathartic,” Baca said. “For future recruits, it gives them a clear picture of what the expectations are.”
Fratto, an upstate New York transplant who decided to apply after visiting his brother in Colorado, takes a fun approach to the blog. He typically writes Saturday mornings and reflects on his week. He likes to interject funny stories into his four- to five-paragraph entries, while also stressing the academy’s intensity.
One anecdote highlighted a recruit who left his locker open and walked outside only to find his car missing. Instructors had taken his keys and moved the vehicle. Fratto emphasized the educational value of the prank, writing that it served as a cautionary example of what might happen if a deputy left his or her locker open with a gun and ammunition inside.
In another post, Fratto reminisced about the time he didn’t know the answer to a question about the definition of crime prevention. Rather than say, “I don’t know,” he said, “It’s the prevention of crime.”
He was given the Captain Obvious award for the week.
“I want readers to know it’s a serious profession that you’re going into, but if you stay serious the whole time, it’s going to be monotonous, so I try and throw some humor in there,” Fratto said.
Fratto sends his entries to the office’s community relations manager who edits them for typographical errors and . The office also promotes the blog on Facebook and Twitter each week.
Sheriff Jeff Shrader said the blog hopefully gives a good glimpse to the community about what the deputies are learning.
He said, “I think (it helps) in demonstrating to the community at large what’s going on.”
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com
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Find Nick Fratto’s posts at
