Explorers from police, sheriff and highway patrol departments tested their law enforcement skills and knowledge during the 13th Annual Central Valley Explorer Competition held at Sierra High School in Manteca.

Thirty six teams from across the state, Nevada along with one team from Hawaii competed in the three-day event on the school’s campus and classrooms. The event is co-hosted by the Tracy, Manteca, Modesto and Ripon police department

The Tracy Police Explorer Post 504 brough nine explorers to the competition this year to test their law enforcement prowess.

Det. Travis Alexander, a member of the Tracy Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit is one of the team’s advisors and after a morning of scenarios said the team was doing a great job.

“The main thing is the kids are having fun. What this competition is really good at is getting the kids experience in law enforcement they wouldn’t get otherwise, but also learning and having a good time,” Alexander said. “(They are) competing in different scenarios that might challenge them and their knowledge on certain things about law enforcement.”

The explorer program is open to all youth ages 14 to 21-years-old but has a special appeal to youth who may have an interest in pursuing a career in law enforcement.

“The explorer program is definitely geared more towards getting the kids their first foot in the door essentially for law enforcement, getting them that exposure early on to decide if this is a career they want to do,” Alexander said. “It’s not always a career they want to follow up on. They may get in the explorer program and find out they want to be a crime scene technician or they might want to do more admin work and that’s OK, but it’s to get them that exposure early on so they can start that path early as a kid.”

During the competition the explorers are faced with a series of scenarios that a law enforcement officer might face on any given day.

“We have a huge variety of scenarios ranging from your average traffic stop all the way to bus assault, active shooter, hostage rescue, something that your average patrol officer may not experience every day on the job, but certainly something officers do have to train for and be prepared for and things they might deal with every day,” Alexander said. “They’re definitely showing off their skills today, showing what they have learned and how they progressed through the scenarios.”

Alexander said the explorers train all year for the different competitions as they gain experience.

“Right after this competition ends will be getting ready for the next one. The training and the experience never really stop. We’re always working to get better.” Alexander said.

Explorer Jonathan Hedrick has been with the Tracy police explorer post for about five years. Taking part in his fourth competition with the explorer post he thought the team was doing well.

“We’re taking things really well, going slow, methodical, doing everything we should going back on our training, trusting that we can do the right thing,” Hedrick said.

Now that he is almost 21 years old Hedrick plans to apply to the police academy, hoping to go back to the Tracy Police department as an officer.

He said the best thing the program gave him was some practical law enforcement experience.

“The exposure for sure does a lot of it for me, and the team work we all have, helping to understand the team mechanics, getting to know the people you work with. It’s really beneficial,” Hedrick said. “You have to work as a team in this job. You can’t do anything on your own. Everything is very team-orientated. You have to rely on the people you work with. They’re real life scenarios that were going to have to see some day, so it helps to prepare us while we’re still young.”

He said the program could be beneficial for anyone.

“It’s an extremely good experience even if you don’t want to be in law enforcement because it teaches you very valuable skills you can carry on throughout life, and it shows. I’ve grown a lot as a person and I’m really thankful that this department helped me be an explorer,” Hedrick said.

Explorer Briana Rodriguez has been with the Tracy post for about three years and on Friday morning she and her teammates had already completed four scenarios and were preparing for a high risk traffic stop.

She thought the team had done well with a just few hiccups along the way, which they could fix.

“Out of the training days we have the whole year it adds up to these three days. The excitement, being nervous kind of gets to you but it’s normal,” Rodriguez said.

With all the teams in the competition she said there was a little more pressure to perform well.

“We have 30-plus teams. It’s more challenging, we’re not just competing against someone else, we’re competing against 10-plus-people, it’s more challenging but it gets us excited, it gets our adrenaline going,” Rodriguez said.

Volunteers portray the roles of suspects in the different scenarios that are proctored and judged by officers.

Isabella Gomez is in her third year with the explorer post and said she is looking for a career in law enforcement.

She had been in two morning scenarios and saw the benefit of teamwork.

“I think we’ve done good as a team, I think we need to stop making the minor mistakes but other than that our skills and our confidence have definitely gone up over the years and our teamwork is pretty good with the new people,” Gomez said.

She said the competition was a slice of what they may face in the future as a law enforcement officer.

“I think it is definitely a time to get competitive and also get used to long days and scenario after scenario,” Gomez said. “In real life you go to call after call and it just gets you used to that, as well as just seeing if this is something you want to do, something you’re good at.”

Alexander knows the benefit of the explorer program as he was a member of the Tracy Explorer Post, participating in the competition in his final year as an explorer in 2016.

“I learned that this is a job I want to be in, I want to pursue, and it gave me that great experience I wasn’t going to get anywhere else, and I just fell in love with it, so I came back as an officer of this department,” Alexander said. “We have several other officers here today that were explorers, and they come to give back to that explorer program.”

He said the post is looking to add new members.

“We’re always looking for kids that are eager to get into the career field, whether they are unsure they want to be in law enforcement or they’re just looking for that first foot in the door we’re open,” Alexander said.

The team’s hard work was rewarded with three first place awards. The Tracy Police Explorer post took top honors in the Bus Assault, Domestic Disturbance and DUI Traffic Stop scenarios. They were awarded second place in Drill and first place for most points between the host agencies of Manteca, Modesto and Ripon.

The 2026 Central Valley Explorer Competition will return to Tracy, and will be held at one of the local high school campuses.

For more information about the Tracy Police Explorer Post 504 program or to fill out an application visit https://tracypd.com/bureau-of-field-operations/explorer-program

• Contact the Tracy Press at tpnews@tracypress.com or 835-3030.

Recommended for you

(0) comments

Welcome to the discussion.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.