Students’ Limits Pushed At RCMP Camp

May 9, 2019 | 1:21 PM

Dozens of high school students from the Okanagan and other parts of B.C. are in Vernon learning about a career in law enforcement.

They are taking part in a week of training at the Military Camp as part of the 20th annual RCMP Jean Minguy Memorial Youth Academy.

The graduation ceremony will be on Saturday.

The students watched as police officers and Vernon Fire Rescue demonstrated what they do during a mock traffic accident Thursday.

RCMP and Fire Rescue take part in mock accident at Jean Minguy Youth Academy at Vernon Military Camp pic.twitter.com/scOoWsMJ0T

— Vernon Matters (@VernonMattersca) May 9, 2019

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Coordinator and RCMP Constable Dan Cocks says the idea is to simulate a police training depot, and to push the limits of the students, with activities from morning to night.

“It shows them there is more than just the XBox in the basement, and they’re going to develop skills they never knew they could develop here,” Cocks told the media.

Students are not allowed to use cell phones while in the program, only given access to several pay phones on the army base, if they want to phone home.

He says some of the students over the two decades have gone on to careers with police and other emergency services, but they don’t have actual numbers.

“We expose them to theory of law, other aspects of law enforcement, victim’s services, specialty sections like major crime, that sort of thing, and showcase all the different careers streams, as much as humanly possible, within one week.”

Cocks, who is in his fourth and final year as the school resource officer, says they want to get the message across that anyone can potentially be a police officer.

“You don’t need to be six-foot-five to be a Mountie. You can be five-foot-five, and with the specific training we provide, you can be very safe and effective as a police officer in Canada.”

While most students are from Okanagan, this year there’s also participants from Smithers and Creston.

“We’d like to enhance the program to include more from Armstrong and Enderby, as well as expand the program generally. With more funding, we’d like to have up to 50 students,” says Cocks.

Cocks says students each have to pay a $350 registration fee, while an additional $550 per student comes from subsidies for the one week camp.

Seventy-five percent of this year’s class are males, with 25 percent females.

Cocks says the event is a community effort, with access to the facilities at the army base, and meals served at the Schubert Centre.

by Corey Fischer