National Partnership for Careers in Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Security

Exploring is a career educational program for young adults who are 14 (and have completed eighth grade) to 20 years of age. The programs are centered on careers that include: law enforcement, fire and emergency services, law and government, and health services.

Since its formation the National Partnership has worked in partnership with the Explorers, offically known as Exploring. In school career programs can become much stronger when coupled with one or more Explorer Posts. When working together each can reinforce the other when students are in both the school career program and the Post. Post activities provide a range of experiences in targeted career areas through local partnering organizations such as fire departments, sheriff offices,law firms and the courts. Exploring is one of the programs for Learning for Life.

Explorer Posts can be organized in schools and school clubs as well as through local organizations. The programs are coordinated by the local Learning for Life office. The local office can be found by inputting your zip code on the www.learningforlife.org web site. The Learning for Life office will provide a staff member who will guide the post and recruit local agencies and companies to support the program. In addition to the classroom sessions, the agencies and companies provide hands-on activities at their locations. By partnering with schools, exploring can supplement the classroom sessions with hands-on career orientation activities.

Exploring is one of seven programs for Learning for Life. One of the Learning for Life programs is a school based program for senior high students called Navigators. Navigators has lesson plans to be used during school time. The lessons range from writing resumes to researching careers on the internet. Exploring provides supplemental hands-on activities to the lesson plans. The annual fee to join exploring is $10.00 per participant and $20.00 for the sponsoring organization. For more information visit the www.learningforlife.org/exploring website or call 972-580-2241.

The National Partnership estimates that there are more than 100 in-school career programs that are connected to, or contain, Explorer Posts for law enforcement, fire, emergency services, corrections, law or security.A number of these can be found at the tabs at the top of this page. This includes law enforcement (Centennial High School in GA.) and security in western NY. Recently the Los Angeles Police Academy Magnet Schools at five high schools in Los Angeles expanded its program and now have a truly comprehensive law enforcement developed system. This is described in brief below.

The Police Orientation and Preparation Program at the Ahmanson Recruit Training Center

It seems that the Los Angeles Police Academy Magnet Schools and their partners may have solved some of the key issues facing many law enforcement career programs and law enforcement agencies around the country.

The problem plaguing most law enforcement career programs has been the gap between high school graduation and the age (21) at which most agencies can hire. These intervening years have often seen many graduates fall by the wayside by choosing lifestyles that might disqualify them for law enforcement work or failing to continue their education.

On the law enforcement recruitment side studies have found that a small percentage of applicants actually end up as law enforcement officers. In large departments the coos of recruitment and traing new recruits can be staggering. According to a recent study by the Rand Center on Quality Policing only 12% of those who aspire to join the LAPD and file an initial application enter the LAPD police academy. And this does not take into account the percentage actually completing the academy. The cost of evaluating and training police recruits can reach $100,000 each. The RAND study recommended several approaches to recruitment that would both reduce the cost and increase the success rate. The following outlines the approach now being taken.

The RAND study determined that most successful recruiting efforts took place in the context of employment preparation programs. In other words it was in such programs where those who have seriously thought about careers in law enforcement could be found. Previously recruiting at social and sporting events predominated. And the study found that those who lived locally were the better recruitment targets as were those with some college experience. In Los Angeles Hispanics were more likely to complete the entire recruitment process. There were no difference between male and female applicants.

Los Angeles already had three key sources of recruits that met these criteria: the Los Angeles Police Academy Magnet Schools, community college criminal justice programs and Law Enforcement Explorer posts. From these programs, highly motivated seniors in high school and those in community college programs, with law enforcement as a career goal, enter into a sustaining educational environment with close proximity to LAPD professionals and LAPD recruits undergoing the training process. This is the POPP@ARTC program.

POPP@ARTC provides its students with an in-depth, hands on law enforcement educational experience that combines 1) college level administration of justice courses taught by community college instructors and LAPD officers and 2) LAPD recruit traing courses.

Students graduating from POPP@ARTC will 1) be physically and mentally fit and equipped with significant self knowledge, self-discipline and self-confidence; 2)be fully prepared to enter the complex and rigorous LAPD recruitment and training process; 3) have acquired post-secondary college credit with high school participants meeting all requirements for entry into the University of California system.

Depending on their choices, students, called cadets, may stay in the program for one or two semesters. Elements and benefits will include:

All courses taken at LAPD’s world renown Ahmanson Recruit Training center;
College level courses in sociology, political science, psychology, and economics, and criminal justice courses leading to a degree in administration of justice;
Immersion in the law enforcement culture, physical education through LAPD instructors, mentoring from LAPD officers;
Up to ten college credits for high school students per semester;
One or two skill certificates such as arrest and fingerprint classification;
Eligibility to join the LAPD reserves as a level III officer;
A network of LAPD and college mentors to call on upon for support until reaching the age of 21.

To make this program work four key partners had to work together and assume specific roles. These are:

Los Angeles Unified School District recruits students, provides day-to-day oversight via a POPP@ARTC program director who also serves as the teacher of record, provides some material, supplies and meals
Los Angeles Police Department provides the training facility and a specifically designated POPP@ARTC classroom, LAPD instructors, mentors and student internships
Los Angeles Community College District provides the college instructors, college and career planning counselors, and tuition assistance for those entering administration of justice program after POPP@ARTC graduation
Los Angeles Police Academy Magnate Schools Foundation purchases uniforms, books, classroom furniture and equipment, a laptop computer for each student and funds the salary for the program director's intern assistant. The Foundation serves as the lead fundraiser for the program to ensure sustainability and planned expansions.

The POPP@ARTC Program is the newest in an integrated system intended to develop model citizens and provide students with realistic career related education to help them determine if a career in law enforcement is right for them. POPP@ARTC is for those students who have made such a decision. It is open to any 12^th grade student in Los Angeles County who is in either the Explorers Program, or the Los Angeles Police Academy Magnet School Program; or, is a college student who has been in one of those programs.