Junior cadets learn the importance of following orders
By Angela Greiner Contributing Writer

PHOTO/ANGELA GREINER (l to r) Nick Cowley, a second-year participant in the Junior Police Academy camp hosted by the Hudson Police Department, responds to Officer Craig Perry July 23.

Hudson - "Hoorah," shouted 20 junior cadets as they completed the 10 pushups ordered as a punishment for disobeying a command at the Junior Police Academy camp. The junior cadets participated in a camp run by the Hudson Police Department for two one-week sessions.

The first session ran the week of July 23 and the second session begins Monday July 30 for children in grades six through eight with an interest in the police force.

School Resource Officer Craig Perry explained that he had read about Northborough's junior academy in the Community Advocate newspaper a few years back.

"It grabbed my attention, and I asked the chief if we could run one," Perry said.

Last year Perry, with the support of Chief of Police Richard A Braga Jr. and fellow officers Michael Russell and Jonathan Parks, launched the program and all were pleased with the response of interested students.

Perry said that the camp is an opportunity for the junior cadets to "learn what the police force is all about and why we do what we do."

He also felt that the activities and drills would also teach the students the importance of selfdiscipline and give participants a higher level of self-confidence.

"Sir, yes, sir," barked the junior cadets from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. as the officers ran them through drills and activities.

Camp participants begin each morning with an hour of physical activities including a one-mile run and calisthenics. They then participate in self-defense training (taught by volunteer martial arts instructors from Rising Sun Academy) and public speaking, along with education about first and fourth amendment rights, use of traffic radar, traffic regulations and how to write a ticket.

Nick Cowley, a rising ninth-grader who attended the camp last year and this year, knows he wants to join a police department one day.

"I had fun," Cowley said about last year's academy. "We learned self-defense moves and [how to use] the radar gun."

"We had such positive feedback from last year's camp," said Russell, who is also the schools' DARE officer.

Although this year's academy retained the structure and some of the activities from last summer's, this summer the organizers added another aspect of police life - a visit from the UMass Life-Flight team. The officers thought this would show the junior academy members how the police work with other rescue teams like the fire department and ambulance services in an emergency.

Officer Jonathan Parks, a veteran of the first Gulf War and a 14-year service member, brought his marching and drill expertise to the program this year. He had suggestions for the cadets about how to stand at attention for prolonged periods, including an explanation that locking one's knees restricts blood circulation to the rest of the body, so knees should remain slightly bent, even when standing at attention.

The officers agreed that the strongest lessons they hoped to impart to the junior cadets were a sense of structure and the ability to work as a team.