MANCHESTER — Manchester Police Chief David Mara swore in nine new police officers in Michael Biggs Police Athletic League on Monday, including two women and seven men.

Mara thanked Mayor Ted Gatsas and the board of aldermen for coming up with the funds for hiring the officers and thanked the current members of the department for making contract concessions that made it possible.

Mara said over 200 people applied to work in the latest round of applications and testing and the nine new officers were selected after a thorough and lengthy process.

“We select only the most qualified,” said Mara.

The new officers who are not already certified police officers will attend the New Hampshire Police Academy. All of them will undergo a 10-week, in-house training program and six weeks on the road with a training officer. Police officers have the power to take away a person's freedom, said Mara, but they are also expected to have a positive effect. Police officers are expected “to improve the quality of life for the citizens of Manchester,” he said. When in uniform, he said: “Whether you like it or not, you are a role model. ... We're looking for you to go out there ... and be a friend.”

He noted the presence of retired officers and members of the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office, as well as family members of current and new officers. “It is family,” he said.

He urged the new officers to talk to their husbands, wives or partners about their day. “Don't isolate them from your job,” he said.

He then introduced Siobhan Bergeron, who spoke about the activities of the Manchester Policemen's Wives Association, which raises money for scholarships, hosts an annual blood drive, participates in a cancer walk and has other activities and meetings.

Bergeron later sought out spouses of the new officers, including LaDawna Smith, who had pinned the new badge on her husband, Andre R. Smith, as their 4-year-old daughter Aniyah watched. Bergeron welcomed Smith, giving her a card to help with further contact for monthly meetings and activities,

The new officers, in addition to Smith, 28, who was most recently a correctional officer with the Worcester County Sheriff's Department in West Boylston, Mass., are Christian Horn, 29, a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department; Jason Sagers, 29, a trooper with the Utah Highway Patrol; Adrianne Davenport, 30, most recently a dispatcher with the Lowell, Mass., Police Department; Chrysta Dietle, 30, who has a bachelor of arts degree from New England College with dual majors of criminal justice and psychology; brothers Daniel R., 22, and David V. Golia II, 25, whose father is a former police officer and Drug Enforcement Administration agent; Eric Goodwin, 35, a sergeant for U.S. Security Associates, serving as a special police officer for the Harbor Point Housing Development in Boston, and Aaron C. Stone, 26, who returned from Afghanistan in January as a staff sergeant and squad leader with the U.S. Army Reserves.

Dietle said becoming a police officer was a childhood dream.

“I've wanted to be a police officer since I was 8,” she said.

She's been a nanny and homemaker since 2003, but with her daughter, Lily, 6, starting first grade, Dietle is ready to put her degree to work and live her longtime dream.

David, the elder of the Golia brothers, said: “We've always done things together. Lifeguarded in Nashua. Going to UNH. This is what I've been working for my whole career. It's kind of bred into me.”

dvincent@unionleader.com