Past Stories
Law Enforcement in the Wild, with a Smile
David Swendsen never cancels class. Ever.
Not even on this grim fall Saturday morning, under a hammering rain.
Each student arrives even wetter than the one before, and Swendsen, who directs the Conservation Law Enforcement Training Program offered by UMass Amherst Continuing & Professional Education, announces that they will be practicing routine traffic stops. Outside. In the rain.
There are no sighs or groans. Only smiles.
“I just wish I could take the class again,” says UMass Amherst student Erin Shanley, 23, who graduated last year from the 400-hour certificate program, and who has returned to discuss career opportunities with current students.
Director David Swendsen, left, and former
Conservation Law Enforcement students.
“We always have lots of energy and enthusiasm in this class,” Swendsen says of the 26 students who range in age from early 20s to 50s. “They know they are lucky to be here.”
If that kind of student enthusiasm and commitment seems rare in a university classroom, it is worth noting that this is not a typical university classroom.
The Conservation Law Enforcement Training Program, one of only nine such programs in the U.S. approved by the National Park Service, has graduated more than 500 students since its inception in 1989. Many have found employment at state and national parks across the United States, with the Massachusetts Environmental Police, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and as wardens with state fish and game departments.
“What really makes teaching fulfilling for me,” says Swendsen, “is having the privilege of coming before these really talented and dedicated young men and women, to preach professionalism, and hopefully to prepare them to go out into our National Parks and other recreational areas, ready and eager to be an important ingredient in protecting our environment.”
“As one of my instructors tells the students, ‘Our national parks are what America is all about.’ "
When Swendsen started the program 18 years ago, after retiring from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there were 30 such programs in the country. Many of those have since withered and died.
Swendsen attributes the success of his Continuing & Professional Education training program to the quality of his 50 instructors. In addition to UMass Amherst faculty, many of the instructors are current or retired Massachusetts Environmental Police officers, national or state park rangers, and officials with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife and Forest services.
“I bring in instructors who like to teach. They are some of the best in the country,” says Swendsen. He points to the work of co-director Thomas Houston and chief firearms instructor Lt. John Pajak of the Massachusetts Environmental Police – an agency, says Swendsen, that has been critical to the success of the program.
During this particular class, Massachusetts State Police Officer Matthew West, who graduated from the program in 1994, is helping instruct the students in the proper use of radios.
The tone of the class is upbeat-yet-professional as the students think of scenarios to call in to another student acting as a dispatcher. The room becomes filled with imaginary situations and license plates. “Dispatch, I have a white, 94 Camry with license plate 1-1-7-3 Alpha, Charlie,” echoes through the radios.
Swendsen explains that this is the first step in preparing them for making routine car stops. Later in the day the students will practice car stop procedures and how to approach a person with discretion in a professional manner.
“By March, they will be pulling over their own cars,” says Swendsen. “They will also be certified to carry and use rifles, shotguns, and pistols. Basically, by the time they graduate this course, you can give them their gun, show them their patrol and they are ready for work.”
Conservation Law Enforcement meets every other Saturday for nine hours until January when it is held Monday through Friday for three weeks. It is a serious commitment that pays off in job satisfaction, says Shanley, who worked last summer at the Cape Cod National Seashore as a fire technician. She tells the current students that even if they do not immediately find seasonal employment as law enforcement or conservation officers, there are other employment opportunities similar to hers.
For now, however, there is lots of ground to cover before graduation in March – including crowd control with police horses, defensive tactics, and rappelling. The students will travel to the Connecticut River and to the shooting range at the Franklin County League of Sportsmen's Club, and then will be required to pass the Physical Endurance Battery Test (PEB).
But today, they are simply headed outside. In the rain. To stop cars. With a smile.
