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Sam West was a green 20-something when he joined the Wyoming County Sheriff\u2019s Office in 1998. Back then, West said he lacked the people skills that, today, allow him to leave the scene of a traffic stop confident he\u2019s gotten through to the driver he\u2019s just pulled over, without necessarily having to write a ticket.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cBefore, I was less likely to educate them and more likely to just write a ticket and be done with it and move on,\u201d said West, the school resource officer at Attica. \u201cNow, it\u2019s completely different.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
West changed his approach and gained the people skills necessary to have that kind of interaction with members of the public over the course of his quarter century in law enforcement. But the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s Explorer Program aims to give potential future members of law enforcement a head start in developing those people skills, among many other things, so that if and when they do join the field, they\u2019re better able to engage in meaningful and productive interactions with members of the public from day one.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Open to Wyoming County residents between the ages of 14 and 21, the program aims to expose participants to the different things one can expect from a career in law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
West, who helps run the program, said he teaches explorers everything from how to work a radar gun to how to properly administer the field sobriety tests deputies use to determine whether a driver is intoxicated. Deputies in the Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s communications division train explorers on how to field 911 calls and use the 911 emergency call center while deputies in the jail division offer training in processing arrests and facility security.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Explorers attend monthly meetings at Sheriff\u2019s Office headquarters in Warsaw and participate in ride-alongs with deputies to get a firsthand perspective of their day-to-day responsibilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Sometimes during ride alongs, West may test explorers\u2019 memory and attention to detail by stopping his cruiser and asking detailed questions about where they are at that given moment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat if something happened right now and you had to call on the radio? What if I had a heart attack and keel over right here? Where are we?\u201d said West, giving examples of the questions he might ask an explorer. \u201cWhat road are we on? What\u2019s the next intersection? What\u2019s the next road up there? Things like that, and that can be pretty overwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
West even goes over the finer points of report-writing – something, West acknowledged, nobody wants to do that, nevertheless, is everywhere in law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Jamie Premo, a junior at Attica High School, has long cherished a dream of becoming a police officer. So when West told him about the explorer program last year, Jamie jumped at the chance to join up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cWe do ride alongs, we do training \u2014 everything basically to learn how to become a cop and a good one,\u201d Jamie explained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
During one recent ride-along, West and Jamie responded to a call for a man that was out of control and punching the exterior of his home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
West and a fellow deputy made a mental health arrest and transported the man, who was high on methamphetamines, to the hospital where he received treatment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Jamie, who stayed in West\u2019s vehicle while West and a fellow deputy talked to the man and took him into custody, said the experience was eye-opening, and taught him just how much drugs can change a person\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cPeople can do some stupid stuff \u2014 especially with drugs,\u201d he said. Jamie said the ride-along with West only strengthened his desire to pursue a career in law enforcement – \u201cI would like to do it more, actually,\u201d he said – and encouraged other Attica students to consider joining the program if they\u2019re interested in learning more about the field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018The post really helped me\u2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In order to be accepted and remain in the program, members need to maintain a C average in school and uphold a high standard of personal conduct.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s really minor it\u2019s one thing but we don\u2019t really give a whole lot of leeway,\u201d said West. \u201cHolding them accountable is very important because we know they will be associated with the Sheriff\u2019s Office, so if they screw up or they do something bad, we\u2019re pretty tough on them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Explorers in Wyoming County\u2019s program have gone on to become corrections, police and immigration officers. Others have entered careers in the U.S. armed forces. Some have even been hired on as deputies at the Sheriff\u2019s Office, said West.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
One such former explorer is Kyle Murray, a 2010 Attica graduate who now splits his time working as an officer for the Attica Police Department and as a deputy with the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Murray had for a long time been interested in pursuing a career in law enforcement when he joined the post as a 14-year-old and soon started going on ride-alongs with Deputy Dan Kemp.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI was able to witness the deputies speak with people during calls and develop communication skills that way,\u201d said Murray, who\u2019s worked in the field for the past four or five years. \u201cIf there\u2019s a student interested in law enforcement, I think it\u2019s extremely beneficial. It gives you a sense of what the job\u2019s about, what you do on a daily basis. I just think it gives them a good sense of what the career\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Another former explorer post member who\u2019s gone on to a career in law enforcement is Deputy Nick Wright, a road patrol deputy for Wyoming County who now runs the post along with West.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
As a teenager, Wright wanted to enter the medical field and went as far as to sign up for a new medical course at the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership\u2019s May Center in Mount Morris.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThey called me two weeks before, they said \u2018There\u2019s not enough people, we\u2019re not having the medical class, what do you want to do?\u2019\u201d Wright recalled. \u201cI was like \u2018Eh, I\u2019ll just do criminal justice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Wright credits his teacher in that criminal justice course, Judy Essig, with sparking his initial interest in pursuing a career in law enforcement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOf all the teachers I ever had, she was able to connect on a different level with her students because she\u2019d been in that career field and she\u2019d done the job,\u201d Wright said of Essig, who worked for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Genesee County Probation Department before becoming a teacher. \u201c…She changed my view on law enforcement and from there I just fell in love with law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Then, one summer at the Wyoming County Fair in Pike, Wright noticed a kid in a blue uniform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI asked him \u2018What are you doing?\u2019 and he said \u2018I\u2019m in the explorer post,\u2019\u201d Wright recalled. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know about the explorer program and that\u2019s the thing – not a lot of people realize we have this program for kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Wright joined the post soon at the age of 16 after and immediately started going on as many ride-alongs as he possibly could.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI was doing three to four ride-alongs, if not more, every week,\u201d he said. \u201cI was doing doubles, holidays, weekends.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
After graduating high school, Wright was hired on as a dispatcher at the Sheriff\u2019s Office. He graduated from the Rural Police Training Academy in 2013, joined the Warsaw Police Department later that year and was hired by the Sheriff\u2019s Office in 2019.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt tremendously helped me when I got my first dispatch job and when I got my first police job,\u201d said Wright, \u201cbecause I was doing hundreds of ride-alongs and I knew the radio system, I knew the computers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Wright and West took over the explorer program last summer after Deputy Andy Houghton, the program\u2019s longtime administrator, retired.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe post really helped me get to the point I\u2019m at in my career,\u201d said Wright, \u201cand I felt like it was something I needed to do to give back to the Sheriff\u2019s Office, kind of what the Sheriff\u2019s Office gave to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Program offers explorers\u2019 real-world experience<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Participation in the program has fluctuated over the years and currently stands at just a handful of members. Rachel Cedrone recently aged out of the program after joining up four or five years ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
During her time in the post, Cedrone said she\u2019s learned the importance of keeping a level head – regardless of the insults and vitriol someone might be directing at you \u2014 while, at the same time, standing your ground should the situation call for it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cYou have to still be professional and you still have to be, in a way, polite and not be rude and disrespectful to them. It\u2019s not good to feed back what they\u2019re feeding you,\u201d said Cedrone, a 2019 graduate of Letchworth Central Schools. \u201cBut they (deputies) also know how to stand their ground, which is pretty impressive. Before, when I was in a bad situation, I always would just get knocked down whereas the officers, they know how to stand their ground. They don\u2019t get knocked down and they don\u2019t let it bother them and that\u2019s pretty impressive to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Hayden Langless, a 2019 graduate of Perry Central Schools, has been in the explorer post for about three years. If he\u2019s taken away anything from his time in the program, Langless said it\u2019s that each and every day on the job is a roll of the dice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cYou have no idea what you\u2019re going to walk into, which is kind of cool because you could literally stumble upon anything,\u201d he said. \u201cIt might be something interesting, it might be something less interesting, but you find a way to learn something new every time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
West feels the program\u2019s value lies in getting explorers out in their communities, interacting with members of the public \u2014 \u201cYou\u2019ll get to see humanity. Sometimes it\u2019s great, sometimes it\u2019s not,\u201d he said – and in cutting through the popular, and often inauthentic, representations of law enforcement on TV and in movies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cOh, I put a uniform on, I go in, write a couple tickets, I shake a hand or two, I put a bad guy in jail and go home. Oh my goodness, it is so not that,\u201d West said with a laugh. \u201cThis is a good opportunity to get out there and see some things and actually get to talk to people and learn what the public is like because a lot of people don\u2019t have a clue what the public is really like and it\u2019s really shocking sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It also helps build the next generation of law enforcement, said West \u2014 something that is extremely important for an agency like the Wyoming County Sheriff\u2019s Office, about 50 percent of whose members have enough years of service to retire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
At a minimum, said Wright, the explorer post can help those considering a career in law enforcement decide whether it\u2019s a path they\u2019re interested in pursuing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cYou have these young adults, they spend this money to go to the police academy and it is pretty expensive and they\u2019re halfway through the academy or in their field training program or they\u2019re into the job and realize \u2018It\u2019s not something I want to do, it\u2019s not something I like,\u2019\u201d said Wright. \u201cAnd I give \u2018em credit – why stay in a career field that you\u2019re not going to give your heart and soul to? But this program – it\u2019s free of charge… and it gives them insight into law enforcement so they can decide \u2018Yeah, I do want to get into it\u2019 or \u2018No, I don\u2019t.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Wright and West are working to schedule an open house at the Sheriff\u2019s Office, 151 N. Main St., Warsaw, for those interested in learning more about the explorer program. Wright said they hope to decide on a date \u201cin the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n