STRESSED TO DRILL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51
“I have some idea already about who is not going to
make it. They did not properly prepare themselves...
but we will get them there.”
Ted Nagel, Deputy Director of the
Cape May County Center for Public Safety
get a job. And one week in, she already seems to know what it
takes.
“You really have to use your mind to push yourself,” Labell
contends. “But I really want to be a police officer, so I will do
whatever it takes.”
Do they have what it takes?
The first recruit to finish the mile-and-a-half run that culminated the physical training testing to start week two came in at
9 minutes, 21 seconds. Labell finished in 9:32, which earned a
chance to stand at attention in formation while the other 50plus recruits needed another nine minutes to complete the run,
including one who limped to the end. But whatever it takes,
right?
Nagel and Cape May Public Safety Training Center Director
Tom DePaul suggested looking at the journey through Labell’s
eyes for more than just her whatever-it-takes persistence and
that she is paying her own way through the Alternate Route.
That’s a financial commitment of at least $3,000.
Labell wanted to get into law enforcement because as a young
girl she watched her older sister be victimized by a bad domestic situation and drug problems. “I don’t want to see any fam-
52
NEW JERSEY COPS
■ SEPTEMBER 2016
Week 2 began with a physical training test that included push-up, sit-ups,
stomach curls and culminated with a mile-and-a-half-run.
ilies have to go through what my parents had to go through,”
she relates.
Working at the Picatinny Arsenal where she developed a proficiency for writing reports then heading to do CrossFit and a
run right after prepared Labell for her route. She admits she was
ready for this, including the shout down. “A little crazy, but I
wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Labell also notes that she felt the stress the second day when
instructors made all recruits put everything they had unpacked
the first day back in their cars and then endure the first round
of physical training. And she reveals that at the end of the first
week, she needed some different food. But it’s not going to get
to her.
“As long as you keep your head up and follow the rules, the