Whiteland Police’s cadet program connects police and community

Whiteland Police have launched a new program that gives teenagers an introduction to the law enforcement profession.

The Whiteland Police Department Police Cadets made its debut in June. The program is designed to show students what it takes to be a police officer, while also helping connect the police department with the community.

Cadets learn about law enforcement through classroom lessons, demonstrations, participation in hands-on training activities, guest speakers and trainers, according to the department. The first class of cadets has eight students.

The trainings cover leadership skills, the K-9 program, drug prevention and identifications, drones, self-defense tactics, crime prevention, criminal and traffic law, crash and crime scene investigation, firearms safety/marksmanship, history of law enforcement, patrol procedures, radio communications, traffic and crowd control and juvenile delinquency. The cadets will also do a ride-along with officers when they earn the right, Whiteland police say.

“It’s going to be a pretty wide range, but that’s what it is in law enforcement today is we wear a lot of hats, so it’s important that they are able to do the same thing,” said Chris Wilcher, a patrolman and program mentor.

Wilcher said his children were involved in a cadet program in another agency and he saw their knowledge and connection grow with police officers other than their dad, which gave them a different perspective of the field.

The program was set to start in fall 2023 but was delayed to 2024 because of tornado recovery efforts, said Rick Shipp, Whiteland police chief. He wanted to start the program to reach out to students and show what it takes to have a career in law enforcement, he said.

“These are our future replacements and when I retire, I want to leave it in good hands and make sure we got good people doing this job,” Shipp said.

The program also helps officers connect with the community and show that police officers are there for the community and aren’t “the bad guys,” he said.

“I think it’s very important because what we’re teaching them, it goes out into the school as their friend groups as they talk, they can bring out, ‘Hey these guys, you know, I’m a cadet and they’re not as bad or they really are helpful in the community’ and what dangers we go through to protect the community,” Shipp said. “It reach(es) out to all kids to let them know that we are a friendly face and we are there to help … that we’re there for the good as well as the bad.”

Cadets also assist the department at community events with traffic control, crowd management and community outreach. They recently attended Whiteland Community Night on July 26 and National Night Out on Aug. 6.

The cadets will attend the police department’s trick-or-treat event in October, and Wilcher said there will also be a Veteran’s Day event. Julia Meece, the department’s operations administrative specialist, said town officials have discussed events like a clean-up day, which the cadets would be a part of.

Cadets meet monthly for an hour and a half. Eventually, the department wants to expand the meetings, if possible, but they are working on building a strong foundation, Wilcher said.

In the future, Wilcher wants to get more officers, including school resource officers, involved. Shipp also mentioned the idea of having the cadets mentor younger students.

Within the first couple of meetings, they’ve had and events they’ve participated in, Wilcher and Rick Shipp have been happy with the first cadet group. They said the cadets are eager to learn and are already growing together as a group.

“These are the people who are going to be taking our place someday and it’s fun to watch them get excited about topics that I’ve done 20 years of and [that Rick Shipp has] done way longer than that,” he said. “It’s fun to watch them get excited about those and hopefully then watch it grow and watch that excitement build and watch them come together as a group.”

Right now, Wilcher said there are various careers the cadets are leaning toward, but the majority of them are looking at public safety. Some want to work as federal agents, local police officers or with the state police. Others are deciding between the police and fire service.

18-year-old Brooklyn Shipp, Rick Shipp’s granddaughter, said a lot of her family members are law enforcement officers, so she’s grown up with that lifestyle.

“I have a lot of respect for what they do,” she said. “And as I got older, I kind of realized I wanted to be like my grandpa.”

She said she is most looking forward to getting more of a taste of the career field, improving her mindset and getting to see what training day-to-day life is like as a law enforcement officer.

“I’m genuinely curious to see how strong my mentality is going into this career,” Brooklyn Shipp said.

16-year-old Rylan Glaze was exploring his options when he came across being a Whiteland Police Cadet, he said.

“I just thought it’s like a perfect thing for me,” Glaze said. “I like the physical stuff you have to do … and I like all the options you can do.”

Glaze is also excited to learn more about guns and police codes.

“I’m wondering how far my discipline will go until it will give up or I’ll have to stretch further,” he said.

So far, Brooklyn Shipp said the cadets have learned about the ethics of policing and connecting with the community. The department “really shines through” on serving and protecting and is big on community policing, which is an important topic Rick Shipp and Wilcher want to get across, they said.

“We want to be able to make the connection with them so that they see us not just as someone in a police car who shows up in terrible moments, but also so they can feel free to talk to us when they need to and we want to make that connection with them as a community member first,” Wilcher said.

Wilcher and Shipp say the program helps the cadets build confidence, work together as a group, be good public servants, give back to the community and look at things from a different angle and perspective, among other topics.

“I’m just very proud of this program, I think it’s a program that we need to interact with our younger people and it gives a big outreach of what we do in our career and how we help serve the public besides just writing tickets or stopping somebody,” Rick Shipp said.

To join the program, teens must be a 14 to 19-year-old residing in the greater Whiteland community and attending Clark-Pleasant Community High School or Central Nine Career Center. Cadets must be able to commit to attending meetings and volunteering their time at community events, police officials say.

Alongside possessing integrity and a good moral character, cadets must also be in good standing at school and with police departments in the area, have a satisfactory GPA of 2.0 or higher and maintain that GPA.