NIGHT SHIFT CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55
trying to get to sleep when lights out hits at 10 p.m.? Well, nobody is really awake long enough to know.
“Not even five minutes,” Millevoi says about how long it
takes to fall asleep. “We need eight hours of sleep because
when 6:30 hits the next day, we’re starting all over again.”
Walking though the main bunk room – there is another room
where seven recruits sleep and some two-man quarters – and
down the front stairs leads back toward the front desk. On the
right is a door. It is locked. The men are not allowed to enter.
This is the women’s quarters.
A lot of the same activities take place here, including polishing and studying. But what goes on behind these closed doors
enables the seven females in the class to prepare for what life
will be like when they get on the job in a male-dominated industry.
“So we come together and talk every night just to uplift each
other,” discloses Recruit Nicole Korte from Egg Harbor City,
who asked her department if she could come to the residential
academy. She served in the Army, and knows that, like in the
military, every day is a test for the women on the job.
The teamwork, communication and perhaps even the attention to detail is enhanced in this part of the residence. “Tight”
defines the relationships here as much as the living space.
“It’s nice being able to be with people under the same stress
I am,” Recruit Brooke Labell imparts.
On any given night, the drill instructors might pull a 4 a.m.
fire alarm to roust the recruits and ensure they are maintaining
the most important standard: to always be squared away. Attention to detail leads to always being squared away, and Wagner expresses why they all know that polish is so important.
“It’s just really preparing us for every single day,” he says.
Here, and on the job.d
56
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ NOVEMBER 2016
In the barracks with
Recruit Labell
Brooke
Labell
loves life in the barracks. OK, not as
much as she loves
physical
training,
but she is getting
more sleep here
than she does at
home and finding a
life-changing experience after hours.
“It’s making me
more disciplined,
that’s for sure,” says Labell as she continues to lend her perspective on Police Academy Cape May County. “I have a routine. I can go iron my clothes, shine my shoes, make sure my
bed is always tight and it takes discipline to do that.”
The always-energetic, always-peppy, always-smiling Labell has found a resource to become even more uplifting
when back in the room getting ready for lights out with the
six other women in the class.
“When we’re done with everything we talk about random
things we can’t really talk about in class,” she adds. “I know a
lot about these girls, which is cool.” d