CBS6 ALBANY – Emily DeFeciani – Tuesday, November 10th 2020
“We try to develop leaders through service,” said Troy Police Captain Steven Barker.
That’s the mission of the Troy Police Cadet program, and it currently has 10 open positions for young adults age 14 to 20.
Cadets get classroom training on various aspects of law enforcement, as well as opportunities to ride along on patrol and get involved in community events.
Barker says many go from cadets to successful careers.
“We have a few cadets that are now sworn law enforcement officers with us. I believe we’re at two, Rensselaer County has hired some of our previous cadets, North Greenbush, many have gone to the military, we see them fall into roles as dispatchers, as corrections officers,” he said.
Troy Police Officer Edwin Gerena grew up in Lansingburgh and joined the cadet program at 15 years old.
“I’ve always wanted to be a police officer since I was a little kid, and I’ve always wanted to be a Troy police officer, growing up seeing them around I wanted to be like them,” Gerena said.
Gerena says he learned a lot from the program, made a lot of friends through it, and it helped him grow as a person.
He’s encouraging other youth to give it a try.
“It definitely helped me mature, they teach you discipline. You make a lot of friends, you do a lot of fun things, you do a lot of like going and helping out like the SWAT team training and stuff and it’s definitely something that you like to be a part of,” said Gerena.
With many teens and young adults involved in the spike in gun violence this year in the Capital Region, Barker says the cadet program can get them involved in their community.
“Some of the solution to violence is police work, to go out and proactively target those issues, other more all-encompassing solutions are give these kids the ability of something to do,” he explained.
And Barker says the learning goes both ways.
“Hopefully in that same experience we’re also giving you a little bit of exposure on the other side of law enforcement, that everybody in the car isn’t a bad guy. At the same period, our guys here, the men and women of the police department, are experiencing more from the youth and kind of seeing maybe a different perspective from what they grew up in,” Barker said.
Anyone under age 18 needs parental permission to apply.
For more information, please visit www.facebook.com/TPDcadetpost or contact cadet recruiter and lead advisor Sergeant Ralph Southworth, Jr., at (518) 270-4772 or ralph.southworth@troyny.gov