The In and Outs of Police Explorers Academy

Here I was, facing the target, gun in hand. My nerves jangled as I glanced around the shooting range. “Are you scared?” the cop behind me asked. “Definitely,” I replied. I looked around, everyone else seemed to be doing fine. The officer assigned to me repeated the rules of gun safety, “Always face downrange, keep your hand off the trigger...” The words blurred until I couldn’t hear them anymore. Finally everyone was in position. “Fire!” said the range supervisor. Everyone else started shooting. I slowly raised the gun, my body got all tense. “You can do it,” said the officer. I put my finger on the trigger, all around me was the sound of shooting. My finger slowly pressed down on the trigger. Time seemed to stop; I was totally focused on the gun. And then I heard a click and my gun recoiled. I jumped, put my gun down and looked at the target. I had hit right next to the heart. “Nice job!” said the cop, I smiled. This was fun. I pointed my gun at the target again. This time it wasn’t as hard. And even though I didn’t ever get near the bullseye again, I realized it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.

I volunteer with the Redmond Police Explorers who get together weekly to learn about how police do things. We do everything from physical training to learning how to handle high risk vehicle stops. I love being a part of this program because I get to learn from real police officers, it’s hands-on experience and it also looks pretty good on your college applications - if that’s your motivation.

Earlier this year I attended the Explorers Academy which happens biannually, every summer and winter. The whole week was terrifying, our TAC officers - the officers that are in charge of you throughout the week -  were some of the nicest, but there were still too many pushups to count. Whenever you were talking to an officer you had to stand at attention and you were not allowed to look at them since it was considered disrespectful. Because of the fact that you couldn’t look at them sometimes you got their gender wrong when you were addressing them and you got to do pushups, or they just yelled at you. We were a team, so whenever someone else got punished so did we. We had a boy that wasn’t as fit as the rest of the group and we stayed down there with him until his last push up. We cheered him on when he was starting to fall down. And by the end he was able to do fifteen push ups without putting his knees down. That’s dedication.

We ate at the mess hall - which we nicknamed the slaughterhouse because it was meant to replicate a scene, maybe in a bar, where people were screaming and yelling and you had to keep a level head. Before you got your food you had to go and serve a TAC officer by saying “-full name- from the -department you were from- requesting permission to speak ma’am/sir” If you didn’t say that loudly enough they made you do it over again. Then you got to ask them what they wanted. And even if they cracked a joke you were not allowed to smile, or show any emotion at all. Sometimes you got called up for no reason at all. For example; on one of the last days, my TAC officer called me up in front of everyone and told me to sing him a song. I didn’t want to, but I got up on the chair he offered me and sung call me maybe. Only the chorus, because I had forgotten the rest of it. But I felt better afterwards because in that song I was able to show some individuality, which they try really hard to snuff out of you in the rest of the week.

Looking back  it was a great experience. It was hard, so it made me tougher. There was physical training that made me stronger. And all the yelling and screaming made my skin thick. I  came away from this experience knowing my limits had been pushed, that I am now a proficuous and better human being because of it. And best of all - I earned the privilege of calling myself an explorer.