The Westfield Police Explorers who attended the 2013 Cadet Academy offered by the North East Regional Law Enforcement Educational Association this summer 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)
WESTFIELD – Over the next several weeks, city residents will be asked to support a program of the city’s police department which allows youths an opportunity to get a taste of police work while helping their community.
The Police Explorers program is sanctioned by the Boy Scouts of America but administrated by city police officers and designed to allow young persons aged 13-21 an opportunity to learn about police work.
Officer Chris Coach is the current advisor to the group and reports that in addition to training opportunities, the Explorers are given opportunities to get out on the streets of their community to help out as they learn about the duties of police officers.
Coach said that in the past year the Explorers helped with programs to assemble emergency child identification kits at several venues and also helped with major events in the city such as the mayor’s Easter egg hunt and the annual Independence Day celebration.
Recently, several of the Explorers helped represent the city at the Big E on Westfield Day.
Of course, funds are needed for the program and none come form the city.
Expenses such as uniform costs and the costs of programs such as attendance at a recent conference in Connecticut where the Westfield delegation won prizes are inevitable, and without public monies, all the funding for the program must come from community support and the participants’ contributions.
For the sixth year, the Explorers are relying on the services of professional telephone solicitors to ask the public for contributions, according to a former advisor of the group, Officer Mark Carboneau.
He said that each year police dispatchers receive calls questioning the legitimacy of the solicitors when they call local residents and businesses asking for contribution but Carboneau hastens to assure potential donors that all contributions will support the local youths who take advantage of the program.
