By Matt Chiappardi, Special Writer
EAST WINDSOR The Township Police Department is looking for a few good teens.
Starting Wednesday, the department plans to begin a Police Explorers program under which teenagers and young adults between the ages of 14 and 20 will have the opportunity to get hands-on experience learning and exploring what it’s like to have a police career
”Any kids that have some interest in a law enforcement, we’re going to take that interest and put them together with people who are doing the job,” said Lt. Jim Brady, one of the advisors for the program.
Five teens already have signed up, and the department is hoping for that number to grow once it holds its signup and information session 7 p.m. Wednesday at the police headquarters on One Mile Road.
To be eligible, a teen must have completed the eighth grade and must maintain a C average at school while a member, he added.
The Police Explorers program is facilitated by Learning for Life, a non-Scouting subsidiary of Boy Scouts of America. It offers a number of schools and community organizations throughout the country programs for boys and girls to learn about different career paths.
For law enforcement, the groups are organized like Boy Scout troops, and members can earn ranks in accord with police ranking, complete with some added responsibility for higher-ranked members, Lt. Brady said.
The department hasn’t put a curriculum together yet for the program, and that’s because it will be based entirely on what its members decide are the types of things they’d like to experience during their monthly meetings, Lt. Brady explained.
”They’ll have the opportunity to learn about crime-scene processing, motor vehicle enforcement, domestic violence enforcement or the different types of careers available in law enforcement at the national, state, county and local levels,” he said.
Teens also would be exposed to things like arrest procedures, crowd-control techniques and how police officers relate to the community.
One of the specific educational activities the teens also might learn is how to dust fingerprints during a mock crime-scene investigation.
”They’d learn about the different surfaces prints adhere to and how police are able to lift fingerprints from a particular location,” Lt. Brady said.
The lieutenant added that the group might take field trips to places like the State Police Museum or have the opportunity to sit through municipal court proceedings.
The program is sponsored by the township’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, and Lt. Brady said he hopes it will foster not only a lifelong love of learning, but, hopefully, a keen youth interest in law enforcement careers as well.
Lt. Brady, a Police Explorer himself while growing up as a teen in Hainesport, said he and the rest of the department are buzzing with energy about the program.
”We’re very excited about it. The whole department just can’t wait to interact with the kids,” he said.
For more information about the township’s Police Explorer program, call Lt. Brady at 448-5678, ext. 228, or Detective Joe Gorski at ext. 231.
