Officer Shawn Williams’ K-9 partner Solo demonstrates his ability to track high school students during Shadow Day. (Credit Nicholas Grasso)
Eight senior high school students from Mattituck, Greenport, Shelter Island and Southold schools had their first taste of law enforcement at Southold Town Police Station’s job shadow day on Friday.
After discussing the department and what it takes to be an officer in the department, the students toured headquarters and watched dispatchers answer 911 calls. Over the next few hours, they gained first-hand experience spotting motorists speeding down Route 48, watched K-9s sniff out evidence and sat in the cockpit of a Suffolk police helicopter Inside.
“I learned that police officers have different jobs,” said Jackson Frend, a 16-year-old Mattituck student. “It’s not just one job on the street, it’s cool that they can do a variety of different jobs.”
Shadow Days is a longstanding tradition at North Fork and Shelter Island High Schools that gives young people in the community an opportunity to learn about careers that interest them. In addition to the police station, the students observed worker merchants in the Egyptian port of Southold, followed teachers from their school, and worked with other local professionals who volunteered.
At Southold Police Headquarters, there is never a shortage of officers looking to attend this annual event.
“It’s a break from their normal daytime duties,” Commissioner Martin Flatley said. “They like to show off what they do and explain what they do. They also have kids in the district, so they never had any problem finding volunteers today.”
Among the volunteers were Officer Sean Williams and his trusted companion, Solo, a 3-year-old German Shepherd. Despite the name, Solo works well with Mr. Williams, who explains that his partner views all of his tasks as play, not work, and that the two play with Solo’s toys when tasks are successfully completed.
During a demonstration for students, Solo put his nose to the ground, sniffed around the grounds at the Southold Town Recreation Center, and found hidden “evidence”—fragments from guns and walkie-talkies—by smelling police officers. Hidden.
“We can use all kinds of [K-9 officers] Besides catching the bad guys,” Mr. Williams said. “They can find missing people and the elderly. “
One display of particular interest to high school students born into the digital age was the drone display. After sending it into the sky, Captain James Genus explained how the device’s many features help police in their day-to-day operations, from heat signature detection that relays information to the remote’s screen, to the drone’s ability to drop flotation devices over water people in need of rescue.
Two Suffolk County police officers from the department’s aviation division flew in in a helicopter and made the kids jump into the cockpit — provided they didn’t push any buttons. Students learned the tactical way officers use their beacon lights to flush people out of hiding, as well as the lifesaving duties they perform with Stony Brook Hospital flight paramedics.
Students get the most hands-on law enforcement experience with the Highway Patrol, who take kids on Route 48 and train them to spot speeders. The best course of action, Chief Flatley explained, is to look at which cars in the fleet are moving the fastest before using the lidar scanners. The technology, whose name stands for light detection and ranging, is more accurate than radar guns when trying to detect the speed of individual moving vehicles. One by one, the students aimed the LIDAR guns and shouted out the speed of the speeding drivers on both sides of the road.
The various interactive sessions left a deep impression on the students, and some students expressed that they would seek development in the police force.
“We really got a sense of what goes on in a police day,” said Mattituck’s student Ella Wirth.
