Do they have what it takes?
Recruits Brooke Labell and Andrew Peahota continue to relate what it
takes to make it through Police Academy Cape May County.
There’s no debate
If only the most challenging part
of the Academy thus far for Recruit
Peahota was missing the presidential
debate.
“I hope my dad recorded it so I can
watch it when I get home,” he said.
“We’re so secluded from the outside
world, so when we do go home on the
weekend I try to look up whatever I
can find.”
Truth be told, the biggest challenge
five weeks in – other than stretching
the group during physical training –
has been time management. This has
been particularly stressful on Thursdays when Peahota serves as duty officer, having been chosen as leader by
his classmates.
The duty officer has to file a report
at the end of the day recapping every
activity from when recruits wake up
until they hit lights out. That includes
tracking how many push-ups at physical training to how many steps taken
on the march to the chow hall for every meal. And everything in between.
The other challenge for Peahota
has been making sure there is enough
time each evening to study, type up
pages covering each functional area
that has to go into the binder all recruits must keep and make sure the
uniform is ironed and the shoes are
shined. The routine might be getting
to the recruits a bit judging by what
they are looking forward to.
“A lot of us are looking forward to
getting OC sprayed,” Peahota said. d
Worth the stretch
Recruit Labell is evidence that the
program is achieving what it is designed to do, at least through the first
five weeks. She said she is not as nervous as she was the first few weeks,
but it’s more than that.
Labell has been called upon to run
the stretching exercises during physical training as many of her classmates
have. No pressure, right?
“You have to say them perfectly,
and you don’t want to mess up or the
whole class gets punished,” she explained. “Everybody knows you have
to stay on your game at all times. You
can’t let your guard down because we
will get in trouble for it.”
Labell hasn’t let her guard down,
and she knows the instructors won’t
let her.
“They make you think you have to
push yourself harder than you think
you can because you will be fighting
for your life someday,” Labell added.
“They give you that mentality.”
Labell has been pushing herself in
the classroom, too, though that has
been the easy part. She noted that
she was an OK student in college, but
“bored out of my head with classes.”
That’s not the case here.
“These classes are a lot more interesting,” she related, “because I’m
learning about the type of officer I
want to be.”
And who might that be?
“We just learned about community
policing, and I want to be an officer
WORKING CLASS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 67
next privilege offered of getting some free time in the gym will
cure that.
“It will be a huge boost for morale if they can get a little freedom to go out for a job or go to the gym,” Nagel says. “They have
been pretty much confined to ironing uniforms, shining shoes,
68
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ OCTOBER 2016
who is really involved in the community,” Label shared. “I want people in
the community to be able to come up
to me and trust me.” d
keeping up their notebooks and studying for exams at night.”
The nights have been confined to the barracks like the days
have been spent in the classroom. Nagel reports how that has
left this group of recruits pretty much where he thought it
would be at this point. That might very well change with what’s
ahead. d