The Cobb County Police Explorers is a youth organization created, “to educate youth in police operations, to interest them in a possible career in law enforcement, and to build confidence and valuable leadership skills for the future,” according to the website for the program.  Last week the young people in Cobb’s program made impressive accomplishments at the 2018 National Law Enforcement Exploring Conference at Purdue University.

Here’s the text of the public information release from Officer Sarah O’Hara of the Cobb County Police Department:

Cobb County Police Explorers from Post 5 traveled to Purdue University in Indiana last week to compete in the 2018 National Law Enforcement Exploring Conference. Eight of Post 5’s nineteen explorers were chosen to make up two teams that competed against 2,000 other explorers from posts across the country.

Cobb County’s explorers won 2nd place in both Crime Scene and Bomb Threat Response. They also placed 5th in both Domestic Violence and Hostage Crisis Intervention. They were the only team from Georgia to win trophies and the only post to win multiple trophies on a national level. Not only did the post compete against other posts on the local level but they also competed against posts that are sponsored by federal agencies which have significantly more resources and a larger number of explorers.

Last week was also the final week that the Explorer Chief Leah Barton had her title as the Vice National Youth Representative. Barton has represented Cobb County extremely well these past two years as she traveled across the country getting the word out about Explorers and putting Cobb County on the map. Post Advisor Officer Higgins and I have high hopes that she will join the ranks in the future as a Cobb County Police Officer.

Please join us as we congratulate these young men and women on their impressive win!