At the heart of the deal was preparation. After having met for three hours every Friday over a period of five months, members of UTPA’s Police Explorer’s Program took second place at the inaugural Rio Grande Valley Law Enforcement Competition held at Marine Military Academy in Harlingen on May 1.
For an organization only five months into its life, the feat was impressive. It highlights the nature of an organization set up, not to compete ironically, but to give UTPA’s criminal justice majors experience in the field.
“What we want is for these students to have an edge when they’re trying to get a job,” said UTPA Police Chief Roger Stearns.
Stearns, who is now completing his first year as chief, said setting up a Police Explorer’s Program at UTPA was the first order of business when he took the job, and one of his goals when he interviewed for the position.
“This is supposed to be a foundation program with the community,” Stearns said. “We want to get people involved.”
Through an aggressive and ongoing recruitment process that includes speaking in many criminal justice classes and information tables at the Freshman Orientation Fair, the Explorer’s Program seeks to do just that.
Participants go through a series of weekly training sessions with officers and teachers leading them through situations such as “shoot-don’t shoot,” and handling DUI’s. The trainings are ongoing, with no breaks between competitions or semesters, as the objective of the program is to train criminal justice majors for real world events.
“I got involved because I work at the police station,” said freshman criminal justice major Thania Gonzalez who has been involved with the program since its inception. “No one really knew what it was going to involve at first but it ended up being really useful. Last week we went over how to do sobriety tests.”
Though she wasn’t among the five participants who vied for the title at the Law Enforcement Competition, she says she will do so in the upcoming event in July. The five competitors who took second were Edgar Torres, Noel Rodriguez, Alejandro Marmolejo, Eric Lerma and Marco Reyes. They battled their opponents in events such as conducting DUI’s, felony stops, and “shoot-don’t shoot” scenarios.
“At first things seemed a little unorganized but things are getting a lot better,” Gonzalez said. “By the fall everything should be in order.”
Stearns is hoping to begin a Citizens Police Academy as a way of continuing the community involvement the department strives for. For the time being however, the force will continue to train its participants and recruit more students to become Explorers.
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