Explorer Post active in BV
Working in Bella Vista, Sgt. Eric Palmer could sense a trend he didn’t like. It seemed that young kids were getting into bigger trouble.
“It was beyond what it should be,” he said, talking about teenagers, drugs and petty crimes.
Kids today are bombarded
by violence and bad behavior at school, at home and even as they’re playing video games. There are few positive role models, he said.
“I was looking for a way to reach out,” he said, “to keep good kids — good kids. Maybe add some positive peer pressure.”
He knew about the Explorer program because he saw it working in another city were he used to live. So he went to the mayor and police chief and suggested it. Now Palmer is the adult leader of a group of teenagers interested in law enforcement. It’s the only Explorer Post in northwest Arkansas.
Explorers operates under the “umbrella” of Boy Scouts, Palmer said, but it’s a pretty large umbrella. The program focuses on career paths and the Bella Vista post is focused on law enforcement. Some of the kids, he said, want to be police officers but some just want to know more about the police.
According to the website Exploring.org there are 12 career clusters that can be the focus of Exploring Posts. They range from arts and humanities to skilled trades.
So far there are 10 teens, both boys and girls, signed up. He doesn’t want the post to get too large. Between 12 and 18 members would be perfect, he said. He expects some of them may come and go as their interests change.
They meet at the police station in Town Center every Thursday. An adult advisory board meets twice a month, too.The post elects its own officers from among the teen members.
At meetings, they get some of the same training that police officers do, including first aid and CPR, and firearm safety. They are working their way through the curriculum of the citizens police academy and they also watch as the dispatchers and the officers work their shifts.
Long-term members will repeat some of the same training each year — just like real police officers, he said.
Palmer would also like to take his group on some fun trips, maybe canoeing, but he can’t plan anything until they can raise some money. They’re not allowed to just ask for donations, he explained, they have to make something or perform a service.
Some of the teens work at the Recycling Center, which pays volunteers through grants to a nonprofit. Because the Explorer Post isn’t yet a 501 (c)3, the teens’ volunteer hours are credited to the American Legion and the Legion will help purchase items the post requires, Palmer said.
In the future, he would like to take some of his post to the national Exploring Law Enforcement Conference, where they compete as individuals or in small groups, showing off the skills they’ve learned. The conference was in Flagstaff, Ariz., this year.
“When you help your community,” Palmer explained “you really are helping yourself.”