The Maplewood Junior Police Academy instills teamwork and promotes relationships
Fresh out of school for the year, 25 recruits in yellow shirts marched up Berkshire Road to Clinton Elementary School on June 28. The children, in grades 5 to 8, were showing their families the drill and ceremony they had learned during their week at the Maplewood Junior Police Academy.
Detective Sergeant Scott Reeves of the Maplewood Police Department’s Community Service Bureau heads up the program. He says he was pleased with the number of children enrolled and views the academy as an opportunity for the students to learn teamwork, see a different side of police work and foster relationships.
Moms are proud of their recruits: From top – Laura with son Gabe; Arlenia with son Evan and Maria with daughter Nicole.
Laura Wintroub agrees. Her 12-year-old son, Gabe, attended the academy this year for the first time. “When I heard about it from a friend, it just seemed right up his alley. He really loves the police,” she says. “It seemed like a great way to get some firsthand experience – learning more about what it means to be a police officer and all the different elements that go into it. It’s been incredible. They’ve taken all these amazing field trips. He’s gotten to learn about the transit police, what goes into training to become a police officer.”
Reeves and other officers in the bureau kept the recruits busy by showing them different types of police work. They visited the Port Authority hub at Newark Liberty International Airport to see how it utilizes fire trucks for aircraft rescue. At the NJ Transit hub in Orange, students learned about bomb-defusing robots and the work of dogs in the Canine (K9) Unit. In Newark they visited the Newark Mounted Unit, including the stables where the horses are kept. On their last day, recruits attended the Essex County Police Academy and got to work out with future officers, play games and compete in races and tug of war.
At the graduation ceremony, Deputy Chief Niheema Malloy told families, “They learned a lot about leadership, not really about policing per se at this level. It’s about stepping out of your comfort zone, doing things that you’ve never been doing – things you didn’t think were possible – and being a leader.” As the children listened quietly in the Clinton School auditorium, Officer Sakina Duncan called them up one by one so they could receive their certificates of completion and salute and shake hands with Chief Albert Sally. Parents were at the ready, taking photos of the recruits and celebrating them with applause.
As families gathered afterwards for refreshments in the cafeteria, Arlenia, mom to Evan, explained why she enrolled him in the program. “I thought it would be good for discipline and learning life skills.” Evan was particularly proud of winning second place in a running race at the academy. Nicole, a fifth grader, said the academy “makes me want to be a policewoman.” The highlight for her was visiting NJ Transit and seeing the police dogs.
Duncan said she fosters team building, especially at the beginning of the program. “I pretty much just led them on their first day not to stand by someone they knew. And they had to all come back and tell me something each day. And it actually worked. I helped the shy kids to open up more. And now when they go out into the community, they will see each other. At their schools, they can help one another.”
Reeves is already making plans for next year’s program. He’s hoping to get a grant to expand the academy to two weeks so he can add field trips that expose recruits to even more facets of police work. He mentions a trip to an escape room so the children can learn how detectives work together, thus building camaraderie and teamwork.
That will be good news for recruits such as Nicole. She’s enthusiastically looking forward to another year in the Maplewood Junior Police Academy.
Ellen Donker enjoyed seeing the energy the recruits had after a week at the Academy.
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