Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Police Department recently swore in its first Explorers in about six years.
Law Enforcement Exploring provides young people contemplating a career in the field of criminal justice training, practical experiences and other activities. Sweet Home’s program ended when funding ran out for the department’s school resource officer in 2011.
Sweet Home’s Explorers program had approximately 10 members when it ended.
“It (Explorers Program) really stopped, faded away, when we lost the (School Resource Officer) program (in 2011),” said Police Chief Jeff Lynn.
When the SRO program ended, “we really lost that conduit, the connection to the high school,” Lynn said.
The city and Sweet Home School District reinstated the SRO position in 2015.
“There’s been a lot of interest in (Explorers) over at the high school,” Lynn said. “As we went into it this year, we had to kind of start from scratch.”
The department needed to make sure its policies were updated and in order before reinstating it this year, he said.
Earlier this month, the department swore in freshman Malaki Wetzel, freshman Seth Biteman, sophomore Logan Cockrell and college student Korianna Klein.
“I always felt it was successful at the time,” Lynn said. Current Reserve Officer Leah Dauley was one of the department’s Explorers before the program ended.
“It’s nice to kind of have the youth in the building,” Lynn said. “It kind of gives them something to look forward to.”
Wetzel said he is most interested in “just helping people,” and working as a patrol officer.
“I signed up to see what police do and learn,” he said. “I possibly want to go into law enforcement as a career.”
Right now, the Explorers are going through the program’s policies and procedures and learning what they can and cannot do, Lynn said. As they progress through the program, it will give them a hands-on experience in law enforcement and a chance to find out what law enforcement is all about.
They will go through training exercises, he said, ranging from use of force training to mock traffic stops. After meeting a set standard in training, they will ride along with officers, although what they can do is limited.
Historically, the department has used them to help out with parades and the Oregon Jamboree, Lynn said. “The parade, often times they’ll help monitor the check-in, check-out, help direct people, help the marshals out.”
The department plans to keep the program at a maximum of 10 students, who are supervised by current SRO Geoff Hamlin.
The Explorers have the potential to put role models in front of students who may need them and may not have if they aren’t involved in sports, Hamlin said.
For Hamlin, law enforcement was always something he wanted to do, he said, and it was a way to help him pursue his career goal.
“I’m excited,” Hamlin said. “I do think it’s a good program.”
The Explorers will be a resource for community events, he said, and they’ll help out at school events like ball games.
The Explorers have had two meetings so far, Hamlin said. They still have a lot of training ahead of them.
Individuals ages 14 to 20 may join the Explorers, Hamlin said. They must have completed the eighth grade, maintain a 2.0 GPA and have no felony or misdemeanor offenses on their records.
The application process is similar to applying for a position as a police officer. Explorer candidates must fill out an application. A panel will interview them, and they must fill out a modified background packet that is not as detailed as it is for a professional police officer.
The Police Department will reach out to parents, teachers, friends and employers asking whether a candidate would be a good fit, Hamlin said.
After high school, Explorers must be enrolled in at least two college classes per term, Hamlin said.
The department’s reserve program for adults recently expanded with the addition of Sara Olson, who was sworn in earlier this month, Lynn said. Olson is a full-time dispatcher with SHPD.
The department’s first reserve officer, Dauley, has been in the program for about a year.
Lynn hopes to build the program to the point where he can recruit full-time officers from it, he said. As reserve officers, the department knows how they’ll fit into the department and how they’re going to perform. The reservists can get to know the department as well.
“It’s a trial basis, basically,” Lynn said.
Ideally, the program will have five to 10 reserve officers, Lynn said.
“It’s not easy to find someone who wants to,” Lynn said. Olson has become interested in becoming a police officer, but she wanted to ease her way into it.
For more information about the Explorers or the reserve program, contact the Police Department at (541) 367-5181.