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FILE - In this Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012 file photo, Santa Barbara
County Sheriff investigators and Santa Maria firefighters stand near the
spot where a Santa Maria officer was shot and killed, in Santa Maria,
Calif. Police shot and killed a fellow officer when he fired his gun as
they tried to take him into custody on suspicion of sexual misconduct
with a teenage member of a junior police program, authorities said. It
turns out, inappropriate relationships between officers and youths in
the junior police program aren’t all that unusual. No organization keeps
statistics but an Associated Press examination of news accounts during
the 21 years since the Explorers was spun off from the Boy Scouts of
America found at least 97 cases involving officers accused of sexual
assault on minor girls, and sometimes boys, in the program. MAGS
OUT;
Photo: The Santa Maria Times, Leah Thompson
/ AP
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TRACIE CONE, Associated Press
Updated 08:32 a.m., Thursday, March 1, 2012
SANTA
MARIA, Calif. (AP) — When an on-duty police officer was shot and killed
by a colleague a month ago, residents of this agricultural community
north of Santa Barbara were horrified. Outrage grew when they learned
the shooting occurred as fellow officers tried to arrest the policeman
on suspicion he was having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl
in the city's "Police Explorers" program.
But
inappropriate relationships between officers and youths in the junior
police program aren't all that rare. No organization keeps statistics
but an Associated Press examination of news accounts during the 21 years
since the Explorers was spun off from the
Boy Scouts of America found at least 97 cases involving officers accused of sexual assault on minor girls, and sometimes boys, in the program.
And that's likely a fraction of all such incidents, said
Samuel Walker,
a University of Nebraska-Omaha criminal justice professor and expert on
police misconduct and accountability. Most relationships never become
public because a youth is unlikely to report it and even if fellow
officers are aware, they're reluctant to do anything.
"More
often than not other officers know that something wrong is going on and
they don't report it," Walker said. "Police departments are like
villages: everybody gossips and everybody knows."
The
Explorer program is run by Learning for Life, a subsidiary of Boy
Scouts of America that pairs young people 14 to 21 with police mentors
who take them on ride-alongs, and teach them to write reports and direct
traffic in the hope they'll be inspired to pursue law enforcement
careers. It is open to anyone, male or female.
Learning
for Life representatives would not speak directly to AP, but answered
written questions submitted through a public relations firm. National
Director
Diane Thornton
said mentors, before participating, go through a training program aimed
at keeping young people safe. Explorers under 18 can't go on
ride-alongs after midnight and should not be used in covert operations
or as confidential informants or sources, she said.
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