Teens participate in police academy

Grants Youth Police Academy cadet recruit Anthony Phillips reaches the top of the climbing wall Tuesday at Rehoboth High School's ropes course while other cadets watch and cheer him on. The 33 cadets will complete their training with a graduation ceremony on Friday in Grants. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Teenagers between the ages of 13-18 are attending a week-long junior police academy at New Mexico State University-Grants.

Their academy will culminate in a graduation in the auditorium at the university at 7 p.m. Friday, followed by a banquet in the Grants High School cafeteria.

The 33 cadets are part of the first-ever Cibola County Junior Police Academy created jointly by New Mexico State Police, Grants and Milan police departments and the Cibola County Sheriff's Department.

They come from schools in the Grants-Cibola County School District including Grants High School, Laguna-Acoma High School and Los Alamitos Middle school.

State police officer Anthony Molina, who has worked with similar academies in Gallup for younger youth for the past few years, said he thought that this would be a good idea for Cibola County.

"The plans for the academy have been in the works since October," Molina said.

Voluntary academy
"We want to make it clear that is not a disciplinary boot-camp situation," Valdez said, with Molina agreeing.

"This is strictly voluntary and is, I guess you would call it, a pre-recruitment tool for area law enforcement agencies," Molina said.

"We are teaching them the basics of everything a law enforcement officer would learn during the 20 week Law Enforcement Academy," said Cpl. John Castaneda, the school resource officer for Grants police.

"It's minimal though because the academy is so long," he said.

"This is a pilot program for this age group," Molina said. "It is the first year of a combined effort between these agencies and the first for this age group in Cibola County."

The cadets that are accepted are prescreened, he said.

Valdez said the cadets are either interested in what a career in law enforcement would be like or are just curious.

Classes and fitness
Grants Police Chief Marty Vigil, who taught a class to the cadets on the law, including such areas as traffic stops, felony stops, probable cause and more, said the department has provided the food for the academy all week long from its fund at the Future Foundations Family Center.

"I'm here strictly as an instructor," he said.

Some more of the law elements he taught the cadets were Supreme Court amendments applying to police officers, criminal elements use of force and arrests, he said.

The academy is from 7:30 a.m., to 5 p.m. each day.

Physical fitness is a large part of the schedule, and some of the officers' roles are as drill instructors teaching the cadets to march and running them through a series of drills each day to improve their fitness. Some of the cadets were obviously having a little trouble with this portion of the academy.

Scheduled instructional "blocks" included ham radio instruction, hazardous material identification, narcotics recognition and avoidance, traffic stops and defensive tactics earlier in the week.

Today the cadets were scheduled for criminal investigations, gun safety and hunter safety course. On Friday they are scheduled for radar instruction demonstration by the Grants Police SWAT team, peer pressure and violence in schools, firearms training, drill and graduation practice.

Donations
The money to allow the academy to exist came from donations from merchants in Grants and Milan and from private donations. To be able to continue to purchase uniforms for the cadets and make the academy an annual event, police are seeking donations on an ongoing basis.

"Without those donations, we could not have done this; so we want to thank everyone who donated," Castaneda said.

The cadets were provided with uniforms paid for by the donations, a light beige shirt, a hat, dark brown pants and combat boots. They will be given their uniforms to keep.

Molina, Valdez and Castaneda said anyone wishing to donate cash only, should contact any of the three at the following telephone numbers: Molina, (505) 287-4141; Valdez, (505) 876-2042; and Castaneda at (505) 287-4404.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 287-2197 or e-mail: tiffin.independent@yahoo.com