Explorer Post

The Police Department has an Explorer post for youth who wish to explore law enforcement as a career.

WHAT IS EXPLORING?

Exploring is a program, run by the Police Department, chartered by Learning for Life, a subsidiary of the Boys Scouts of America. Exploring provides vocational training and experience to young people, ages15-20. You must have a desire to learn about law enforcement. Exploring provides an opportunity for young people to be involved in something positive, to receive training and experience in law enforcement and to learn the value of service to their community. It also allows those involved to get an inside look on how a police department functions. 

WHAT DO EXPLORERS DO?

Police Explorers work hand in hand with sworn officers and non-sworn department personnel in a variety of ways. Listed below are just a few; 

·        Fingerprinting of adult and juvenile offenders,

·        Crowd control at parades and other community events,

·        Assist patrol officers during ride alongs,

·        Records and clerical support,

·        Writing police reports,

·        Support of special department projects, such as October Fest and the FRIENDS program Easter event,

·        Provide color guard services at community events, retirement ceremonies and parades,

·        Dedicated bike patrol,

·        Assist with Horn Toad Derby patrol,

·        Training, competitions and conferences with other agencies,

·        And much more!

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explorer charlie

WHO IS ELIGIBLE TO BECOME AN EXPLORER?

All young people, from age 15 to 20 (14 years with completion of the Junior Police Academy) are eligible to apply to the Post. All applicants must pass a thorough background investigation and oral interview process.

These are the application requirements;

1.    Applicants must be free of any recent criminal history. Applicants cannot be on formal orinformal probation or parole.

2.    Applicants cannot be part of or associated with any gang.

3.    Applicants must be attending school, if required by law to do so. This would include homeinstruction, home study, independent study or other state approved educationalprograms. Applicants cannot have been expelled or be awaiting expulsion fromtheir last school. 

4.    Applicants must have a minimum of 2.0 GPA. Going below a 2.0 average will result in anacademic suspension from all Explorer activities.

5.    Applicants must be free from violations of school rules or policies. This would includetruancy, defiance or disrespect to school officials, lying, cheating or anyoffense that could have or did result in a criminal investigation and orcharges being filed. 

6.    Applicants must be willing to provide at least 4 hours of volunteer service time eachmonth. Applicants must attend at least one scheduled meeting and or trainingsession each month. 

7.    Applicants must be willing to submit to a thorough background investigation. This includeschecking with the applicant’s teachers, school officials, neighbors, employersand references. Applicants must provide the names, addresses and phone numbersof those people they list as references. 

8.    Applicants must completely and correctly fill out the “Personal History Form” and any other needed questionnaires provided by the department. Any willful attempt to conceal or misrepresent any information will be considered cause to terminate the application process. 

9.    Those applicants who pass the background investigation must then undergo an oralinterview. The interview is designed to determine the qualities andcharacteristics of the applicant, to judge the applicants personal appearance,communication skills and critical thinking ability. The oral interview is rated100% pass/fail. It should be understood that not all applicants who make it tothe interview stage will be offered a position with the Post.

10. Those applicants who successfully complete the interview may then be offered aposition within the Post.

11. The application process can take anywhere from several days to several weeks. 

It should be understood that the Chief of Police reserves the right to admit or to deny any application to the Post based on facts learned during the background investigation and the interview process. In short, not everyone who applies to the Post and passes the background investigation and the interview is accepted to the Post.