Twenty-one Santa Clarita young adults will graduate from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department’s Explorer Academy on Saturday, January 21 at the Whittier High School Auditorium with a better sense of law enforcement and practical new life skills.

The Law Enforcement Explorer Program partners with the William S. Hart Districts R.O.P. (Regional Occupational Program) and is affiliated with Learning for Life.

Its primary purpose is to provide young men and women, age 15 to 21, actual experience to determine if they would like to pursue a career in law enforcement.

“Basically it’s done like the regular deputy academy. It’s just condensed. Instead of them getting a 40 hour block of traffic, they’ll get like a 3 or 4 hour block of traffic direction,” said Sgt. Jonathan Melville, from the North Academy.

The Explorer Academy consists of approximately 184 hours of instruction during 18 weeks on Saturdays.

Subjects such as community relations, criminal law, demeanor, firearms safety, narcotics control, police procedures and weaponless defense must be mastered. The trainees are required to undergo drill and physical training as well as their classroom work.

Melville says even though the whole idea of the academy is a law enforcement occupational class, they like to gear it more towards a life experience than turning out people we want to sign and join the department.

“We teach them life skills. About tying ties, how to dress. We start them out in business attire that would be the same as young men and women who would go for interviews, or trying to get college scholarships or anything like that,” Melville said.

Melville says the standards to complete the course are high. The 87^th Academy Class which is graduating on Saturday began with over 70 recruits in August and that has been whittled in half.

Recruits must maintain their grades in the academy as well as back in their high school. Attendance is a priority and well as the physical training.

“To be a peace officer in the State of California you have to pass. You have to get over a wall, you have to do a 440. You have to run a mile and a half,” said Melville.

Satisfactory completion of the Academy earns the Deputy Explorer ten high school unit credits. In some cases, college credit can also be earned by post-graduation Academy involvement.

Melville says the Explorer program is not fully funded, so many sheriffs deputies volunteer on Saturday to have the experience of working with positive young people.

“A lot of them contribute their own time to doing this because they love it,” Melville said.

The following is a list of Santa Clarita’s North Academy Graduates:

Christian Ares, Stephanie Becerril, Melanie Bernal, Jessica Constancio, Andrea Corona, Patrick Downs, Cesar Flores, James Fong, Vincent Fratianne, Fanny Jaimes, Albert Llamas, Narek Muragian, Byron Peralta, Juan Rico, Justin Rusch, Arturo Sanchez, Abraham Sandoval, Michael Tapanes, Braxton Tatum, Gustavo Vaca, Sebastian Vaca, and Megan Wonser.

To qualify for the position of Deputy Explorer, you must:

• have at least a “C” average in high school,
• be between the ages of 15 and 21 years of age, and
• be of good moral character without any serious arrest record.

Deputy Explorers must meet the same basic physical requirements as a Deputy Sheriff.

Class 88 Registration begins  Saturday, January 28. For more information, click here.