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Academy students train with Hickory police

Robert C. Reed | Hickory Daily Record

Blake Gibbs, 15, climbs the tower via handholds, rather than the rope ladder.

By Sarah Newell Williamson | Hickory Daily Record

Published: June 23, 2009

HICKORY - Caitlynn Myer grinned as she dangled from the top of Alpine Tower on Tuesday afternoon.

The 14-year-old climbed to the top of the wooden tower and was ready to be lowered to the ground by an officer with the Hickory Police Department.

Myer is one of 20 students participating in the Hickory Police and Parks and Recreation Youth Academy this week.

Kids ages 12 to 16 are seeing the inner workings of the Hickory Police Department while also hanging out at some of the area's parks this week.

Earlier Tuesday, the group watched a K9 demonstration.

"We got to see the dog biting the officer's arm," said Chris Stone, 16. "And then the dog searched for a quarter in a field. It only took him about 30 seconds."

In the afternoon, they played flag football in the park.

Myer had fun on Alpine Tower. Although she'd participated in a ropes course once before, it was nothing like climbing the looming structure at Henry Fork River Regional Recreation Park in Hickory.

After climbing up one portion to get to a platform, you have to scale a log, climb up a rope, reach around another log and pull yourself up to the top platform. You can pick other, more difficult parts of the tower to go up, as well.

"It's hard, figuring out which ways to go," Myer said.

After climbing up the easier side of the tower, she tried the harder side, and reached the top quickly.
"I liked it better," Myer said of the harder side. "It was more challenging."

Sgt. Ericka Heath, with the Hickory Police Department, said that is part of the goal of the Youth Academy — to get the kids to focus on building their confidence and challenging themselves.

It's also so students will see what police officers are like in everyday life and feel comfortable with them.

"We want to bring the police department closer to the youth," Heath said. "We're also demonstrating traffic stops to the kids. Some are 15 and have already gone through driver's ed. We want to show them how to conduct yourself with traffic stops."

They do this through more entertaining methods like police tag, which Myer said was her favorite activity so far.

"We're in the car with them, and they try to pull each other over for speeding, swerving and not wearing a seatbelt," she said.

Heath said the kids will also see how reality stacks up with TV, through the CSI workshop Thursday.

Other events include gang resistance, DWI and fatal vision goggles, Internet safety, disc golf, fishing, field day, a cookout and motivational speakers.

"Some of these kids have had very different experiences with police," Heath said. "We're not in uniform, and we want kids to see what we're like, that we're non-threatening. We want them to be more likely to approach us when we're on the street. We want them to know that we're here because we want to be here."