Riding in a cop car is something most people would dread—but for the Lake Zurich Police Explorers, it is quite the opposite.
Lake Zurich Police Explorers is a career exploration program available to help young people prepare for their adult lives and get hands on experience with the field of police work. Individuals ages 14 to 21 can train in the Police Explorers, a Boy Scouts of America affiliated program to get experience with the criminal justice and law enforcement system.
“It really helps people get into police work. It’s a very skill based program,” said Quentin Kuper, college freshman and lieutenant of the Lake Zurich Police Explorer Post 2 since August 2013.
Police Explorers is a lot like police academy for younger students, according to sergeant Robert Johnson, who runs Police Explorers in Lake Zurich. The program has an all year biennial curriculum, cycling topics every two years. Topics would be similar but a little more intense and stressful at police academy, according to Johnson.
The post attempts to simulate police work in many areas. Students in the program will work with the computers, observe police officers taking dispatch calls, learn how to write reports and direct traffic, lightening the load of police officers while at the same time getting an opportunity to walk life in a police officer’s shoes.
The post also runs simulations concerning intense situations like warrant searches, weapons handling, and saving someone’s life. Police Explorers volunteer at events like Alpine Fest, Rock the Block, the Alpine Marathon, Lake Zurich car shows and other similar events, getting experience with law enforcement and covering shifts that would otherwise go to a police officer with things like directing traffic.
The program is a lot like an internship for a police officer, according to Kuper.
Kuper was drawn into Police Explorers and later became interested in police work when he saw high schoolers in Police Explorers in uniform at Alpine Fest, which he thought was really cool.
“I loved Explorers, it helped me so much. It helped me build my self confidence, leadership, and many [other] skills,” Kuper said.
One of the advantages Savannah Bray, senior, feels she has with Police Explorers is that she is seriously preparing for her career before even finishing high school.
“I’ve been doing it for eight months, maybe, and I know I want to make a career out of it. I want to be a local police officer. It’s good because I know exactly what I’m doing after high school,” Bray said.
Savannah Bray discovered Police Explorers through her sister, sophomore Ashleigh Bray, who also introduced her friend, sophomore Brittany Schauer, to the program. Schauer and Ashleigh Bray intend to work for the FBI.
Having a leadership position in the Police Explorers program, Kuper supervises program students, making sure that everyone knows how to do their jobs, and if a problem arises, takes care of it.
After Kuper finishes college, he plans on going to police academy, finding a job at a police department, and going on from there towards whatever law enforcement opportunities present themselves to him.
Rob Heaser, senior and police explorer for over a year, intends to break into the federal level of law enforcement, possibly by getting military training in college that is needed in the law enforcement community and earning a 4-year degree.