“Get down to your knees with your hands locked together on your head!”

I yell, detaining the suspect and firmly grabbing his hands behind his back while awaiting backup. 

But the person I’m arresting isn’t an actual criminal suspect — he’s a peer in the Police Explorers program, and we’re in a mock incident practicing how to properly conduct a felony car stop. 

The Explorer program is a great youth-led volunteer program that exposes students to a career in law enforcement. As part of their training and program requirements, every member attends a five-day explorer academy, modeled after a police academy. 

The academy is highly academic, coupled with intense physical activity intended to promote confidence in working under pressure and perseverance in completing tasks within a team environment. Upon completion, explorers receive a certificate to reward their efforts.

As an additional benefit to succeeding in the police explorer academy, students receive the opportunity to participate in ride-alongs with an officer and shadow them on the job. Other events include competitions against other posts in Orange County. 

The group is dedicated to preparing students for real-life scenarios police officers face on a daily basis and equipping them with the appropriate knowledge and skills to successfully investigate the incident. 

It single-handedly inspired me to major in criminal justice, and it could do the same for others. My decision to join the Police Explorers program stemmed from an interest in learning more about law and order.

I learned about the program in chaos.

Pushed between crowds in this year’s Club Rush, I looked around — and for a moment, between students, I saw school resource officer [SRO] Gene Valencia at a table with weapons displayed out in front of him and talking to my peers about a fascinating organization on campus.

I pushed my way to the table through the crowd in the quad and soon learned about the Police Explorers program, growing an interest in the law enforcement career. 

I reached out to the SRO shortly after the event and was given an application form upon attending the three required meetings. Since then, I have participated in building searches, felony car stops, arrests and volunteer events like Love Fullerton’s community cleanup. 

The requirements for this program are maintaining a 2.3 GPA or higher, being between the ages of 14 and 20 and not having a criminal history. 

Officers question students on various radio codes and police policy and procedures during an inspection, where explorers are expected to recite and explain themselves under pressure. Then, we go inside a conference room for lectures, lessons, physical exercise or mock scenarios for the duration of the meeting.

That’s what it looks like every Wednesday from 5-8 p.m. — we head over to the Fullerton Police Department at 237 W Commonwealth Ave., where we meet up in the downstairs area outside in our formation. 

At the beginning of every meeting, the class sergeant leads the platoon through a series of drills with some simple jargon:

• “Fall in”: Move into formation!
• “Dress right, dress”: Align yourselves in respect to other explorers.
• “Ready, front”: People stretch out their left hand and touch the shoulder badge of the explorer next to them as their head turns to the right. 
• “Cover, recover”: Extend your left arm horizontally and touch the explorer with your fingertips, then recover to return to the position of attention. 
• “Half right, face”: Slightly raise the right toe and left heel and turn 45 degrees on the right heel. 
• “About face”: Move your right foot behind the other, rotate to the right 180 degrees by pivoting on the left heel.

The advisers, Valencia, Raj, Soto and Munoz, are present at almost every meeting to help us work under pressure by yelling probing inquiries at explorers and gaining strength through physical training. 

Unless an explorer makes multiple mistakes or the group is commanded to exercise, the squad of 16 heads into the breakroom to debrief and discuss plans for the evening. Then, we head into the conference room where the police officers teach lessons and lead demonstrations. 

One evening, the meeting was underway as usual when we were prompted to a room with a gym mat and other protective gear. The officers then revealed we would be prompted with a high-stress mock scenario with a combative subject.

They expected us to de-escalate the situation and use the appropriate force, which could have been less lethal options, including going hands-on, deploying pepper spray, deploying a taser, or utilizing a baton.

We were instructed how to properly use a baton, and then officer Munoz came out in red protective gear from head to toe. He played the role of a fleeing subject that became physically uncooperative; each explorer had an opportunity to respond, handling the situation with their batons to de-escalate the pretend scenario. It was a hilarious turn of events that everyone enjoyed and learned from.   

Being a senior this year, I regret not finding out about this program sooner so that I may have gained more experience and knowledge on the interesting details of investigations, police work, court proceedings and government rules. The Police Explorers program has enlightened me to the insights of what police officers face on a daily basis, how our society is governed and why.

If someone is interested in joining the Police Explorers program, feel free to contact SRO Valencia via email at [email protected] or attend a meeting at the Fullerton Police Department on Wednesdays from 5-8 p.m. at 237 W Commonwealth Ave.