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Photo courtesy of Westwood Police Department. Pictured are the Westwood Police Explorers, also known as the 2022 Massachusetts Police Explorer Post champions.
6-01-2022 11:27pm
Westwood Police Explorers Take First Place in MA Law Enforcement Explorer Competition
Darlene Cancell
Editor
For area youth aged 14 to 21 years-old who want to learn about law enforcement, gain leadership skills, and get an idea of police work, becoming a Westwood Police Explorer may be the ticket. This May, Westwood Police Explorer Post 516 earned its fourth consecutive win at the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Explorer Competition, following wins in 2017, 2018, and 2019. (No competition was held in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic.)
Photo courtesy of Westwood Police Department. A team of two Westwood Police Explorers react to a competition event, likely a burglary in progress. They are standing by the vehicle of the "suspect."Police Explorers is a national program of the Boy Scouts of America, with posts in different localities. The group is an opportunity for young people who are interested in law enforcement careers to gain insight and practical knowledge about their field of interest or a related career. Membership in the Boys Scouts is not required.
The Westwood Police Explorers meet on two Tuesday nights a month for a few hours for a classroom experience. They also perform public service. They may help Westwood Police with staffing events such as Westwood Day and directing Memorial Day Parade traffic. They can join police in ride-alongs to observe the job in the field. They have secured landing zones for medical flights and assisted in missing person searches and evidence searches.
Photo courtesy of Westwood Police Department. Detective Sergeant Paul Sicard assesses the Methuen Police Explorer team as they react, while maintaining alertness, to a mannequin stand-in as an officer with injuries.None of the tasks are dangerous, says Detective Sergeant Sicard, the group’s current advisor. But they can be important. In fact, according to Det. Sgt. Sicard, Westwood’s post was established after the Boy Scouts were called upon to deliver food to people stuck in their vehicles on the highway during the Blizzard of 1978.
Following that event, the Boy Scouts suggested that an Explorer post be established in Westwood. It was in the 1980s when the post was formed. Its first advisor was Westwood resident and founding member Sergeant Richard Hurley. Sgt. Hurley would later serve as Chief of Police of the Medfield Police Department for sixteen years.
Photo courtesy of Westwood Police Department. In this competition scenario of a felony traffic stop using a Westwood Police cruiser, Police Explorers demonstrate knowledge of how to order a person out of a car. The prop being used by the Winthrop Police Explorer is a fake, bright orange, plastic gun.Westwood’s Police Explorers are largely Westwood residents, but also include members from Dedham, Walpole, Brockton, Arlington, Lexington and even as far away as Peabody. They range in age from 15 to 21 years of age.
Explorer Tommy O’Donnell is a senior at Lexington Christian Academy in Peabody. He gained an interest in police work through his family. Both of his grandfathers were police officers in Everett, and his father worked in Middlesex Jail. He joined as a high school sophomore and has continued in the program. His favorite aspect of the program is hearing from different speakers.
“We had someone from state police CSI who showed us how to do fingerprinting and we got to fingerprint each other on different objects,” he says, describing one of his memorable experiences as an Explorer.
Through these classroom and hands-on experiences, Explorers gain skills in first aid, making traffic stops, conducting arrests and searches, responding to a burglary in progress, handling an emotionally disturbed person, handling domestic violence, and more. These skills and others were tested in separate events during May’s Massachusetts Law Enforcement Explorer Competition for which Westwood’s Explorers again took first place, overall. Westwood Police Explorers took first place in ten events, second place in five events, and third place in one event. They beat Explorers from Winthrop, Methuen, Winchester, North Andover and Newton.
Photo courtesy of Westwood Police Department. A Police Explorer competitor from North Andover demonstrates procedure for an arrest and search.Det. Sgt. Sicard notes that the first place honor resulted with “A lot of hard work from [Communications/Reserve Officer] Steve Cromack, a former teacher and dispatcher currently. He put structure into the meetings for a four-year cycle. . . . He put structure into training with lessons and goals. As a result, our kids get top notch training and it shows when they go to these competitions.”
Explorer Tommy O’Donnell encourages those who may be interested to “Reach out to the advisors and learn more about it. They have all the information and they are helpful. Just ask about it.”
Photo courtesy of Westwood Police Department. Westwood Police Explorers gather to go over last minute competition strategies.Det. Sgt. Sicard, himself, was once a Westwood Police Explorer. His colleague, Westwood Police Lieutenant Christopher Sheehy, likewise was a Westwood Police Explorer, having gone through the program a few years ahead of Det. Sgt. Sicard. A number of other Westwood Police colleagues were also Explorers. Det. Sgt. Sicard joined at age fifteen, and Lt. Sheehy remembers joining in eighth or ninth grade.
Lt. Sheehy’s strongest memory as a Westwood Police Explorer was assisting police with their training by taking part in a simulated bus accident. His cohort of Explorers were passengers of the bus, and had makeup applied to mimic different injuries. They were also told to assume specific body positions to physically act out the accident.
“Someone said, ‘Go!’ Police and Fire were called to the scene of the bus accident. . . There was an ambulance that was probably a military surplus vehicle from the 50s or 60s. I got put in that ambulance and transported. . . . The idea was to see response times to such a situation,” explained Lt. Sheehy.
Det. Sgt. Sicard remembers his own time as an Explorer and how it cemented his interest in police work. “I assisted at the scene of a car accident. As a fifteen year old, directing traffic helped me feel like I was part of the town, and that sealed it for me.”
Thanks to Detective Sergeant Paul Sicard and Lieutenant Christopher Sheehy of the Westwood Police Department for their contributions to this article.
