The two girls in the delegation the Westfield Police explorers sent to the 2013 Cadet Academy offered by the North East Regional Law Enforcement Educational Association, Caitlin Julius and Reiley Ledoux, were chosen by the director of the program as the outstanding participants in their respective programs. (Photo Courtesy the Westfield Police Explorers)
WESTFIELD – A delegation from the Westfield Police Explorers traveled to the University of Hartford recently to participate in the 2013 Cadet Academy offered by the North East Regional Law Enforcement Educational Association and, in the words of one of their advisors, Officer Chris Coach, “cleaned house” at the week-long event.
The Police Explorers is a program for young persons aged 13-21 which allows them an opportunity to get a taste of police work to help them decide if they want to pursue a law enforcement career and which also gives them a head start with police training if they do elect to seek employment as police officers.
Coach, together with Officer Richard Mazza, lead the youths through the training and both are particularly well-qualified to do so because both officers were participants in the program as high school students.
Coach said that the roster of the group includes 15 youths but only eight were able to attend the cadet academy this summer.
He explained that the 390 academy participants representing 30 police departments each had the option to participate in one of six programs during the week and Westfield cadets were involved in three of those programs.
When the director of the academy chose the outstanding member of each program, two of the six awards went to members of the Westfield delegation.
In addition, Coach and Mazza, selected as instructors for the squad learning practical police skills, took the prize for the best overall squad.
Coach said that four of the Westfield cadets – Caitlin Julius, Eric Perrier, Jon Kelley and Zach Torry – participated in the Mock Police Department program.
The participants in that program created a facsimile of a police department and performed all the services that a real department would with instructors serving as victims, witnesses and suspects for the staged events that the cadets handled.
Coach said that “essentially they ran their own police department for the week.”
Julius was the director’s choice for the outstanding participant in that program.
Three other cadets, Reiley Ledoux, Garret Southworth and Bradley Alvord, opted for the Practical Skills program.
The Westfield delegation to the 2013 Cadet Academy offered by the North East Regional Law Enforcement Educational Association included, in the back row above, Bradley Alvord, advisors Officer Richard Mazza and Chris Coach, Zach Torry, Eric Perrier and Jon Kelley. In the front row are Garrett Southworth, Caitlin Julius, Reiley Ledoux and Brendan McCarthy. (Photo Courtesy the Westfield Police Explorers)
Coach said that the Practical Skills program is “a mini police academy”, a pre-requisite for the Mock Police Department program, which teaches cadets the skills they will need to operate a police department such as “handcuffing, baton, handgun safety (and) crime scene processing.”
In that program, Ledoux was chosen for the director’s award.
The remaining Westfield Explorer, Brendan McCarthy, opted for the Basic Police Cadet program.
“For the amount of people we had there, and the awards we got, we did very well” Coach said.
Capt. Michael McCabe said that the training provided to the cadets will stand them in good stead if they pursue police careers.
“It’s a whole lot more than summer camp” he said. As the cadets work their way through the cadet academy they learn actual police skills “that will count as part of (their) law enforcement training.”
For example, he said as a Police Explorer, “you can become a certified bicycle police officer without ever stepping foot onto an actual law enforcement program.”
He went on to say that participation in the Explorers program can be beneficial for graduates of the program who seek jobs with the Westfield force as a positive history as an Explorer can break a tie when candidates are being considered for a position by the city’s police commissioners.
