Cadets bring home awards from Explorer competition

Cadets of Douglas County Sheriff's Office Explorer Post No. 2015 recently won numerous top honors at a law enforcement Explorer cadet competition held in Paso Robles, Calif., Sept. 24-26.

The 10th annual Central Coast Law Enforcement Explorer Competition hosted 521 law enforcement explorer cadets from 47 various law enforcement agencies throughout California and Nevada.

The competition was extremely demanding; testing the physical capabilities and operational expertise of competing Explorer cadets.

Explorer cadets competed in a variety of law enforcement related scenarios, including: felony suspect detainment and arrest, vehicle traffic enforcement stops, DUI investigations, vehicle searches, building searches, domestic violence investigations, suspect interview and interrogation, emergency medical aid, patrolling, and a host of other law enforcement related tasks.

Additionally, cadets competed in individual and team physical agility tests.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Explorer cadets won in the following categories:

The Douglas County Sheriff's Explorer Cadets came in second place overall out of the total 47 competing teams; an outstanding achievement in light of an extremely competitive field of explorer teams, including teams from the Los Angeles Police Department, California Highway Patrol, and several other large California law enforcement agencies.

In addition to the competition awards won by the Explorers, Explorer Sgt. Brian Sanchez was selected as the top cadet, winning a $2,000 academic scholarship and a new laptop computer.

The competition was the culmination of several months of training conducted with the explorers by Douglas County Sheriff's Office Youth Service Deputies Chris Griffith and Teresa Duffy.