Are you interested in police training such as building searches, search seizure and arrest, and learning about criminal law. Then you should come down to the police station and check out police explorers. “The Explorers Program opens up an opportunity to anybody and everybody interested in public safety,” says Cecelia Hernandez, who has been in the program for two years. It provides many opportunities such as community service, basic and higher level training.  The explorers are no walk in the park however, it’s only meant for the strong-willed. There are many skills learned through  the explorer training, such as learning how to be able to work well with people in public safety.

 Along with training and learning about the law, the post also has several events they do, including competitions. It’s the competitions that truly bring the members together and unite them as a team. It bonds them all as they apply what they learned. Although there is time to have fun, there are also moments where formality is needed. Discipline is another important aspect of the explorers: “There is time for fooling around,” says Cecelia, “but when it’s time to get serious we get serious.” In one of their competitions, members were given police-like scenarios and competed against other posts, it was definitely hard work. In the end the explorers took home the first place trophies, one second place and two individual third places. If you’re interested in the Joliet Police Explorers, then you can find the application under the getting involved section on the Joliet Police website. Look for the tab that says Explorers Post 220, meetings are on Thursdays from 6-9pm.