By Mary O’KEEFE

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. at the Crescenta Valley Station is looking for Explorers for its new session scheduled to start in mid-January.

“They get to explore law enforcement,” said Dep. Jeff Martin, mentor for the CV Sheriff’s Explorer program.

This is a program that will allow anyone who is curious about a career in law enforcement to experience what a life in law enforcement is like prior to deciding if this is the path they want to take. Explorers go on ride-alongs with deputies and work as crowd and traffic control at events like local parades and 5K runs. Explorers will also compete against Explorers from other programs at competitions that challenge their ability to analyze situations quickly and to react as their training has prepared them.

It is not a program just for those who would like a law enforcement career but also for teenagers who are interested in a program that teaches discipline and organization and looks good on a resumé, whether for employment or college.

There is also a sense of adventure that is part of the program. The competitions Explorers attend challenge their training in real life scenarios with judges observing and scoring their actions. The scenarios can include rapid response, serving a high-risk warrant and crisis negotiation, just to name a few of the exercises.

The purpose is to not only test what they have learned over the years of training at their own station, but also to see how they work as a team.

Explorers must attend six months of Saturdays at the sheriff’s academy. It is a military environment in which the rigid rules at times are difficult for teenagers to deal with, but to see the program through brings a sense of accomplishment.

“They have an 18-week academy. Once cleared they graduate and come to the [CV] station where we train them,” Martin said.

To enter the Explorers program, boys and girls must be between the ages of 14 and 20, they must have a 2.5 grade point average or higher and cannot have any prior arrests or drug/alcohol use.

Martin stressed that this is not for a child who has gone “off the path” and their parents want to get them in a discipline program; instead this is for students who want to challenge themselves to succeed in any situation.

The LASD Explorers was created in 1969 and has been at the CV Station for about that long.

Martin invites parents and students to contact him at (818) 236-4026 or email him at j6martin@lasd.org for more information.

  Mary Okeefe