Page 4 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR

By Clifton V. Stallings
Customs Lends Support at
National Law Enforcement
Conference
Explorer
rado town one day last July, barri On a college campus in a quiet Colo
caded gunmen held a young woman hos
tage while police attempted to negotiate with them. In a building several blocks
away, a group of investigators carefully searched the scene of a grisly crime for
clues to the identity of a fiendish mur derer. And while all this was going on, other law enforcement units prepared to raid a nearby dormitory believed to be the headquarters for a major drug traf
ficking operation.
This sounds as though it could have
been the greatest concentration of crim inal activity in the state's history, but it wasn't. It was all part of the activities which engaged more than 2,000 Law En forcement Explorers and their unit ad visors, from throughout the country and involved the support of a number of Fed eral, state and local law enforcement agencies, including U.S. Customs.
The occasion was the 1983 National Law Enforcement Conference which was held July 11 through 16 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colo.
Law Enforcement Explorers are
young men and women, ages 14 through 20, who are interested in careers in law enforcement and who, under the auspices of the Boy Scouts of America and through
the cooperation of law enforcement agen
cies, arc learning more about their in tended professions.
There are more than 35,000 Law Enforcement Explorers nationwide, who are members of 1,800 posts. Each one of these posts has a partner organization,
for example, a police or sheriffs depart ment. The Explorers hold regular meet
ings which are also attended by volunteer unit advisors from their partner organi
zations, and they participate with law enforcement officers in various aspects of
police-oriented activities.
With this kind of experience, many
of these Explorers become very proficient in a number of law enforcement-related skills. For example, while enroute to the Fort Collins conference, members of Post 256 of Pickerington, Ohio, were able to apply their Explorer-acquired skills in the
Edwin Meese III, Counselor to the President, dis
cussing the Law Enforcement Explorer Conference and the Explorers program with Patrick A. Wil
liam';, 1983 Law Enforcement Exploring Chairman.
rescue of two people from a wrecked vehicle.
While on a sight-seeing detour
through Yellowstone National Park, they came upon an overturned camper with
two elderly women trapped inside.
Two of the youngsters immediately
climbed inside the wrecked vehicle, ad ministered first-aid for minor cuts and
bruises, and proceeded to move the women out of the overturned camper.
Meanwhile, two of the other teen
agers directed traffic around the accident, while another set up flares and yet
another called for help on a CB radio.
By the time emergency vehicles ar rived, the situation was well in hand.
The 1983 National Law Enforce ment Explorer Conference was chaired
by FBI Director William Webster, who was assisted by an advisory group made
up of some of the Nation's top Federal, state and local law enforcement officials,
including U.S. Commissioner of Cus toms William von Raab.
Customs support at the conference
included a seminar on the techniques of
surveillance, a crime scene search which was one of the competitive events, a Cus
toms exhibit, hometown news coverage and photography.
The surveillance seminar and crime scene search were conducted by Customs officers from the U.S. Customs Service Academy under the direction of Acad emy Director Harry Allison and Acad emy Customs Patrol Program Manager Bob Lutz.
Customs Public Affairs Office
Director Dennis Murphy assisted with
overall publicity for the conference and
supervised the hometown news program, the manned Customs exhibit and Cus
toms activities in providing photo cover
age of the events. These functions were performed by Customs employees from Service Headquarters and from the North Central and Southwest Regions.
High-ranking law enforcement offi cials who joined the chairman, FBI Director William Webster, at the confer ence included Commissioner von Raab, Francis Mullen, Jr., then acting Director of the Drug Enforcement Administra tion; John Simpson, Director of the U.S. Secret Service; Major General Paul
Timmerberg, Commander of the Army's