Learning the moves CB Tech students ready for cop competition
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald MLPD Officer Matt Harum gives Andrew Goodge some pointers on how to pat down and handcuff a suspect while Harum’s 6-year-old son Boe watches during a training session for the CB Tech law enforcement and criminal justice class.
Charles H. Featherstone/Columbia Basin Herald Four CB Tech law enforcement and criminal justice students, led by Kaylee Castilleja and Samantha Petersen, advance on a ‘suspect car’ in the CB Tech parking as part of class training on Wednesday.
MOSES LAKE — The young man in the gray sweats is struggling to say his well-rehearse line as he leans on the door of his car and points a blue, plastic fake gun at a car.
“Passenger, if you do not get out of the car, we will release the dog.”
“That’s my favorite line,” said Samantha Petersen.
Petersen, a junior at Moses Lake High School, is standing on the sidelines, watching others do what she was doing just a few minutes before.
About 18 students in the law enforcement and criminal justice program at the Columbia Basin Technical Skills Center are out in the CB Tech parking lot under the watchful eye of Moses Lake Police Officer Matt Harum, practicing a felony car stop.
According to Harum, the scenario involves two people driving a small hatchback who have just robbed a McDonalds. They have been stopped by two police cars, and the four officers — all students going through their paces — have to take command of the scene, talk the suspects out of the car, search, arrest and handcuff them.
“Moses Lake Police Department! Put your hands in the air, you are under arrest!” shouts Andrew Goodge, a junior at MLHS, to another student playing a suspect. “Grab your collar in the back and turn around! Higher!”
“It’s all scripted out,” Petersen said. “I’ve always been interested in (police work). I don’t want to be a beat cop, but I like everything about it.”
“I wanted to get more knowledge and understanding before I join the Air Force,” said Kaylee Castilleja, a junior at MLHS. “It helps get us prepared.”
At one point, a student playing a suspect runs, pursued by Harum’s six-year-old son Boe, and the scenario breaks down. Harum then gathers the students around and lets them know how things work in the real world.
“There’d be six cars, and lots of officers here,” he said. “The front two cars have primary control.”
Which means don’t go running after suspects who flee. There will be other officers on scene able to do that.
While these 12 are outside practicing this stop, another six students are inside practicing their response to a domestic violence call.
This isn’t just part of the schoolwork. These students have been rehearsing these drills because on Thursday, they are going to Wenatchee Valley Technical Skills Center and compete against the students there to see who has the better cop skills.
According to Juan Loera, a former MLPD officer who now teaches at Wenatchee Valley Tech, students will be assessed in the felony stop and domestic violence call, take physical fitness tests, compete in drill and ceremony and be tested on practical knowledge.
“We’re doing this to get more students involved, and so they can show off their skills,” said Loera, who worked for Moses Lake Police Chief Dave Ruffin, who now teaches the CB Tech program.
Loera said he hopes this competition will expand to other technical skills centers with law enforcement programs.
“That’s exactly what we are trying to do,” he said.
Which has been keeping the CB Tech students busy.
“We’ve been doing this for the last two weeks,” Petersen said. “I’m so excited for tomorrow.”
Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.