What's Going On???

By Anne La Jeunesse

Monday, June 7--Sixteenth Street was blocked off at Olympic Boulevard, the yellow crime scene tape familiar to every fan of television cop shows stretched from corner to corner.

Two Santa Monica police cars were stopped side-by-side, their light bars flashing bright even in the noonday sun.

Four officers, each partially shielded by an open patrol car door, stood with their guns poised and their gazes directed at the dark green Ford Explorer stopped about 50 feet in front of them. Inside, they knew, were two men suspected of having committed a felony. The men were probably armed and were therefore, considered very dangerous.

"Driver -- let's see your hands, stick them up in the air. Now!" the officer barked. "One false move and you may be shot."

Following orders, the driver slowly dropped the keys out the window and slowly emerged, hands up, and walked backward, slowly, toward the police cars, followed by the passenger, who was identified as 10-year-old Chadd Owen.

It was ironic that a Ford EXPLORER was the vehicle of choice for the "felons," because the officers in the tense drama were actually Explorer scouts from various Southern California law enforcement agencies, gathered Sunday at Memorial Park and the Police Activities League for the first Explorer Invitational Challenge ever hosted by the Santa Monica Police Department.

Organized by Sgt. Steve Heineman, day watch commander and Explorer advisor, about 100 Explorers representing eight police departments and Los Angeles County Sheriff's stations showed off their skills in stopping inebriated motorists, making felony traffic stops, searching buildings and handling potentially volatile domestic disputes.

In the latter scenario, Lennox Sheriff's Deputy Paul Hardy and his real-life fiancee, Cindy Green, her left cheek bearing a fake makeup bruise, portrayed a battling couple whose fight was calmed by the explorer teams.

The explorers also participated in drill formations, including marching, cadences and uniform inspections, and enthusiastically competed in a physically challenging obstacle course.

The explorers also participated in an essay contest, "What Being an Explorer Means to Me."

Their efforts were critiqued and judged by members of the various departments that took part, Santa Monica, Pasadena and Compton police departments, the California Highway Patrol's South Los Angeles Division and the Lennox, Pacific, Northeast and Lancaster stations of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

Somewhere in the day-long exercise, the Explorers took part in a hot dog eating contest, the winner, from Los Angeles Police Department's Pacific Division winning by downing 13 wieners in 3 minutes.

Many of the Explorers are teenagers or young adults who want to become police officers, and they said that the Explorer training will give them a leg up when they go to a department to get hired and sent to the police academy.

"I know all the training it gives us will be helpful, I know it will," said Cesar Osorio, 17, a Santa Monica explorer. "All the experience we get in the field will help so that when we do become officers, we won't go into situations blindly."

His thoughts have been proven by Tania Bower. As a deputy sheriff and advisor of the Sheriff's Department's Lancaster Explorer Post and director of the Lancaster Explorer Academy, Bower, 34, guides the youngsters who were much like she was as a young woman.

Guiding her team, which earned first and second place honors in the felony stop category, Bower was on familiar turf. Bower got her first taste of law enforcement 17 years ago when, as Santa Monica High School student Tania Webster, she joined the Santa Monica Explorer Post.

"I wanted to go into the medical field, but once I entered the academy (explorer) and the program, I just fell in love with law enforcement, and I knew this was my calling," Bower said.

But, the grueling 18-week academy, which meets on consecutive Saturdays, and participation in Explorer programs, is not just for youngsters interested in pursuing careers in law enforcement, said Bower, who began her professional career as a Santa Monica police officer before transferring to the county Sheriff's Department.

For law enforcement hopefuls, the program is ideal, she says.

"The academy is really tough, only about 50 percent of the kids who enter make it though. It's no walk in the park," she said. "It gives them an idea of what police officers have to go through, it's kind of a rude awakening."

But the program is also beneficial for youngsters who do not necessarily want careers in law enforcement, because it teaches valuable lessons of direction, team work, and discipline.

"We don't try to make them want to become police officers, we just want them to be productive, responsible citizens," Bower said as she watched her team race the obstacle course. "We want them to get the confidence that they can do anything they want to do."

Building confidence is a theory that was at the core of the Santa Monica Police Department hosting the first of what Heineman hopes will be many invitational challenges.

Tony Yerkovich, well-known Hollywood writer and creator of the hit television cop show "Miami Vice," which starred Don Johnson, is a big supporter of the program, and provided food for the crowd and prizes for the winners, Heineman said.

Heineman approached Yerkovich, an enthusiastic supporter of the Explorer Program, asking him to bring local youngsters into Yerkovich's hot celebrity dining spot, The Buffalo Club, to teach the kids the basics of find dining and proper social behavior.

"Tony said fine, he'd be happy to do that, but he said he would rather support something that would give the kids the basics so that they could see what they would have to do in life to be able to attain these things for themselves," Heineman said.

Thus, the local invitational challenge idea was born. Participants in the program, whether they enter law enforcement professionally or not, will learn the discipline required to attain careers that can provide them a living that will allow them to do things like dine at The Buffalo Club and enjoy other niceties.

"We can't wait to do it again, it turned out even better than we thought," Heineman said at the end of the long day.