Cadets grind through academy

“Sir, do we get our own buckets for tomorrow, or are we going to have

to share them with the other cadets?” Evan Beresford asked.

Shooting over an unsympathetic look, Westminster Police Lt. Chris

Taylor decided to ignore the inquiry instead of offering a response.

“See, they’re already getting nervous,” he later said.

Even after five months of training at the Golden West College

Criminal Justice Center, no one gets a break on the “Grinder,” the

concrete courtyard anchoring the academy where cadets meet, do

push-ups and take orders from just about everyone.

Sharing a bucket may seem inconsequential, but when people are

about to be shot in the face at close range with a blast of pepper

spray, knowing whether or not they’re going to have their own bucket

in which to soak their burning eyeballs and skin can be an important

detail.

Instead Beresford is stuck with no answers -- and more push-ups, a

painful lesson in pain itself. In less than 24 hours, he and the 23

other cadets of Class 129, nickname “Honor Defined,” will be exposed

to the powerful chemical agent used by law enforcement officials to

subdue uncooperative suspects. And, no, they won’t get their own

stinkin’ buckets.

Life on the Grinder

There are many different things to do on the Grinder, but there is

only one way to enter and leave the small courtyard -- in full

charge, baton in hand, ready to halt a riot or storm a drug house.

Most weekdays for the 22 men and two women in Class 129 begin

here, around 5:30 a.m., with cadets lining up for morning orders and

then a jog through the college. Each activity requires a different

outfit, and each activity, even the changing of clothing, is measured

by a stopwatch and constant demands for improvement.

“When they’re on the force, they might hear a call over the

intercom and have to quickly change out of their civilian clothes to

get ready,” instructor and police Lt. Jackie Gomez-Whiteley said.

“That’s why we time them. There’s a purpose behind everything we do.”

Only 10 cadets came to the school with an Orange County police

agency consenting to pay their way; by the 21st week, 20 officers had

been picked up. Taylor said there were good indications the others

would be hired before the remaining four weeks of instruction had

concluded.

So far, seven cadets had been hired by Garden Grove, four by Santa

Ana, two by Fountain Valley and Westminsterone by Orange and one by

Brea. The class president, Brett Gillham, will be going to Huntington

Beach.

As of Friday, class Sgt. Kiet Nguyen hadn’t been picked up by a

police agency, which he attributed to his developing language skills.

Nguyen said he hopes his stint in the U.S. Army will improve his

chances.

“In a lot of ways, the police academy is harder than the military

because you still have to deal with your personal life after you

leave each day,” he said. “In the Army, they take care of everything

for you. Here, you have to pay rent on your apartment, pay your

bills, take care of your family. It’s a different type of pressure.”

Stress and pressure are the pinnacles of most instruction at the

academy, said Gomez-Whiteley. Whether it’s an instructor yelling into

a cadet’s face or a particularly grueling exercise, induced stress

familiarizes cadets with their own internal coping mechanisms, she

said.

“We apply stress in a sterile environment to see how they

respond,” Gomez-Whitely said. “For them, they need to know what

stress makes them do.”

One component Taylor said he likes to keep stress free, however,

is the fitness workshops.

“After they leave the academy, we want them to continue to do

something that still involves physical fitness,” Taylor said. “If you

make it a punishment, they will never be motivated.”

The fitness portion often takes on a more congenial atmosphere

than the more rigid climate on the Grinder. The cadets casually joke

and laugh with each other as they prepare to take on a particularly

grueling one-mile dash mixing jogging and a full sprint.

Right out of the gates, Taylor pointed out how cadet Steve Booth

was able to quickly break ahead of everyone else and nearly lap some

cadets

“I told Westminster to look out for this guy, but Garden Grove

snatched him up,” Taylor said. “He would have been so good in the

Baker to (Las) Vegas (relay) race,” run each year by area officers.

After the exhausting run, the cadets still must perform myriad

physical activities like running up and down a small amphitheater,

more push-ups, sit-ups and a particularly painful abdominal exercise

called the cockroach.

Doing the right things

Cadet Chris Gump said he’s wanted to be a cop almost his entire

life. In high school, Gump was part of the Explorer Program and spent

several years in college working for the Westminster Police

Department.

“Growing up, I was always conscious of what it took to be a police

officer,” he said. “Every time I faced an ethical decision, I had to

ask myself: ‘Is this what I want to do if I want to become a cop?’”

Recruiting officers often scrutinize cadet’s lives during the

hiring process, analyzing minute details to weed out past drug use or

criminal behavior.

“You don’t have to do all the right things, but too many of the

wrong things, and you’re out of luck,” said Lt. Corby Bright, a

Huntington Beach officer and instructor at the school.

Basic requirements say officers must be at least 21, have

graduated from high school and have no felonies or drunken-driving

convictions. Bright said most departments frown heavily on any past

drug use.

That all comes out during a polygraph examination, Bright said,

where the cadets are interrogated on any discretion they might have

committed in their youth.

Bright said a telling sign of integrity the academy likes to use

are personal credit histories.

“If they constantly have bills in collection, they’re probably not

real responsible.”

Another day of pain

After a three-hour lecture covering every facet of a popular

police tactic, instructor R.K. Miller takes a moment to size up his

students before sending them to battle with this last piece of

advice:

“You’re a police officer; suck it up; you’ll be OK,” he barked.

The day of reckoning has come for these cadets. After much

anticipation, the men and women of Class 129 will now face down the

OC spray -- an acronym for Oleoresin Capsicum, the active ingredient

in pepper spray.

Wearing a red necktie decorated with cayenne peppers, Miller tells

the cadets its important to understand the effects of pepper spray if

the officers ever plan to administer the chemical agent on a

uncooperative suspect. There’s also the possibility, he argues, that

someone could try to attack them with pepper spray. Besides, he

argues, it’s good for character.

“Pain is weakness leaving the body,” he repeatedly reminds the

cadets.

Ask any police officer who carries pepper spray, and they’ll be

able to vividly remember when they had to be subjected to the

chemical, Miller later said.

“For the cadets, quite often this is a rite of passage,” he said.

“Step-by-step through this academy, they are constantly overcoming

obstacles.”

On Friday, that obstacle meant not only a spray to the face, but a

small fight afterward. After taking a dose of the chemical agent, the

cadet had to fend off an attacking instructor with a night-stick and

then respond when the instructor pulled out a toy knife or gun.

Booth was the first cadet to get a full dose of spray to the face.

After screaming “Get back!” at the mock perpetrator several times and

pounding his cushion shield with his nightstick, and drawing his

weapon when he saw the instructor pull out a gun, Booth was rushed

over to a decontamination area by a classmate. His other classmates

soon followed, rushing around for buckets, hoses and air from several

fans to relieve the burning sensation eating their skin.

“That’s the price you pay for being an officer,” cadet Chad

McGowan told Nguyen.

“I got a double dosage, sprayed again after I opened my eyes,”

Nguyen would later admit. “They’re always trying to get the class

sergeant.”

In the end, everyone got some, except for media representatives,

who politely declined the cadet’s offer to receive a dose of spray

for accuracy purposes.

“After the adrenaline wears off, you really start to feel it,”

Booth said. “It was like my face was on fire, and my body was

freezing. At least it’s good to know that the stuff that we carry

actually works.”

In all, it took the cadets about 45 minutes to fully recover from

the agony of that day’s dousing, many needing to stick their heads in

small buckets for as long as they could, or until another cadet

muscled his way into the small pool of water.

Despite overcoming the pepper spray exercise, the cadets will have

to overcome one final obstacle before graduating. This Monday they

will drive to San Bernardino and be forced to breathe in tear gas.

It’s just all part of the learning cycle, Bright said.

“Everything they learn here is really just the beginning,” Bright

said. “After they leave here, the cadets will spend the next six

months at their agency doing field training.”

That could be a real wake-up call for many of the officers, who

lead ethical lives only to find themselves constantly surrounded by

some unsavory people.

“All the sudden, you’re working with people you’ve never been

involved with before,” Bright said.

Some officers, like Nguyen, might have to wait months before they

find a full-time job at a police agency.

“Everyone here are brothers and sisters and everyone here has one

goal -- to be a police officer,” he said. “Even if I don’t make it,

the lessons I’ve learned here have made it all worth it.”