The Farmville Police Department has implemented a program called the Law Enforcement Explorer Post program. The program is affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America and gives students a look into careers involving law enforcement.
“It gives them the hands-on and the knowledge. It’s not what they see on TV. So that’s what we’re trying to incorporate, that way they can see exactly what police officers do. Some of it’s glory, some of it’s not. I mean, we’re just trying to bring that to them, so they know,” said Officer Christie Booth.
Around two years ago, the program was initially started in Farmville by Officer Barry Radden and Booth. When Radden relocated, the program died, according to Booth. Officer Gary Williams and Booth started the program back up for Farmville.
The program currently has around 15 members, all of which are students. Roughly 13 of these students come from Longwood, while the remaining two are from high schools.
The program is not limiting the number of participants, and Booth stated that they could find bigger building spaces to meet in if they had to.
In order to participate in the program, members must pay a fee of $2 a month plus a small insurance fee. Members must also be between the ages of 14 and 21. Once a student turns 21, they can’t be considered an “explorer” and have to apply as an associate adviser instead.
According to Booth, there isn’t a significant difference between being registered as an explorer and an associate adviser except for being able to participate in local, statewide and national competitions.
“I’m not sure if this is 100 percent the way the Explorers want to do it, but we can, and that’s what we’re going to do until they tell us otherwise. We get members in here who are interested in the program, and they are associate advisers,” said Williams.
Although it is accepted nationally, the local Farmville post won’t be having firearms as a part of their program.
“We’re steering away from any firearm-type shooting, not saying we won’t use simulated weapons, ‘toy guns’ for the lack of a better word,” said Williams.
The members have had the opportunity to hear from and talk with officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration, border patrol, state police, the Farmville Police Department, rescue squads and Commonwealth’s attorneys.
The members are also able to participate in different simulated activities such as building searches, traffic control, crowd control and canine demos.
“The whole point of the Explorer Post is to give them a reality. A lot of people have dreams about what jobs they want and their visions of pursuing a job, and then they focus all their energy into getting there and then ‘wait, this is not what I thought this was. It’s not for me.’ And we’ve seen that already in here. Police work is not television. It’s not necessarily encouraging them away from it, but the truth and reality sometimes are not what their visions were,” said Williams.
Marketing for the program was mainly geared to high schools, but the program has been receiving more interest from college students than high school students.
“We focused mainly on high schools, because that’s where history and statistics showed that most of these members could come from, and as far as I know, we have two (high school members),” said Williams.
According to Williams, they mainly focused on reaching out to 16-21 year olds because of their ability to drive.
Most of the current members are “looking at the federal level” of law enforcement for careers, according to Williams.
The program had an open house in January and has met twice so far in February and once in March. The program meets every first and third Tuesday of each month. Although most members will be gone during the summer due to the college break, Williams said that they will keep those staying in Farmville active in the program during the break.
The program has a particular curriculum which Williams and Booth will follow. Unless the programs loses the majority of its members, the program will continue to progress to more advanced levels. Otherwise, the program will start over in its curriculum with new members.
“To the people who are interested in law enforcement, they’re now at the age to get actively employed in it. I think it’s just a great opportunity to get a taste of the reality of law enforcement, rather than their concept or preconceived ideas. Some of them might be right on track, that’s not what I usually find with most people … If they do continue on in any law enforcement career, this will help them have a leg up when they get there to the basic academies,” said Williams.
Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Officer Williams or Officer Booth.
Farmville police officer Gary Williams displays police procedures to students at the FPD demo.
