Criminal Justice Students Participate in Sheriff Explorer's Program

SAGU students are participating in the local Ellis County Sheriff’s Explorer program. Law Enforcement Exploring is a career-oriented program that gives young adults the opportunity to explore a career in law enforcement by working with local law enforcement agencies. The Ellis County program is currently hosted by SAGU.

Founded July 12, 1973, the Learning for Life Exploring program is a non-Scouting subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America. The program is for young adults ages 14 through 21. For young men and women who are interested in careers in the field of law enforcement, Exploring offers experiential learning with lots of fun-filled, hands-on activities that promote growth and development.

SAGU Criminal Justice professor Bruce Stayments says the program is a “wonderful community policing agency.” The program provides classroom training on various topics as it relates to Criminal Justice. Actors play out various scenarios and the participants interact as police officers.

Topics include active shooters, domestic violence, bomb threats, accident investigations, and firearms training. According to Stayments, the program provides “hands on live training experience for the things we talk about in class. It’s very comprehensive, top-notch training.”

Every two years, Learning for Life hosts a National Law Enforcement Explorer Conference, which includes role-playing scenarios that law enforcement officers regularly encounter, seminars, and networking opportunities. During the conference, posts compete as teams in the various scenarios.

Stayments took a group of Explorers to the 2010 conference in Atlanta, Georgia. One SAGU student competed, while six other SAGUstudents were involved in the competition in other ways. Among 6,000 competitors, the Ellis County group earned a third place national trophy in one of the categories.

Stayments initiated SAGU’s involvement by arranging for an on campus event with SAGU students as actors in the scenarios. Several SAGU students currently participate as either actors or college explorers. Stayments remarked, “It has proven to be a symbiotic relationship between the college and the Sheriff’s Department.”