National Park Service-Seasonal Law Enforcement Training Class # 87
They came from all over the country, including places like Missouri, the Florida Everglades, California, Nevada, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Virginia. But they all had one thing in common -their main reason for attending Southwestern Community College’s National Park Service-Seasonal Law Enforcement Training.
Invariably, each of the 29 graduates of NPS-SLET Class of 67 said their reason for attending SCC’s rigorous 16-week program was that rangers in the field recommended it as “the finest program in the country.”
Take Elizabeth Dietzen, who worked as an interpretive ranger at Lake Mead National Recreation area in Nevada. “When I decided to become a law enforcement ranger, all the rangers told me SCC was the best school,” she said.
Mel Johnson’s story was similar. Like Dietzen, he, too, had worked as an interpretative ranger. “That doesn’t mean we interpret languages,” clarified Johnson, who worked at Everglades National Park in Florida. “As an interpreter you provide information and act in an advisory capacity.”
He pursued his law enforcement certification so he could “be a better defender of the park.” For instance, Johnson said before he could only advise visitors not to feed the bears, but as a law enforcement ranger he can enforce the law.
Already working in a law enforcement capacity in Harriman, Tenn., Chase Tedder took SCC’s program to “expand my skills so I would have new opportunities in law enforcement.”
“We learned to think tactically from the moment we entered our training,” said class Corporal Stephanie Salomon, who said the command “Smooth steady press of the trigger!” rings in her head as loud as the firing bullets.
“We had to get our mind set on combat and it become a very high priority to avoid a ground fight,” said Salomon, who lives near Leesburg, Va.
Speaking at the graduation ceremony Thursday, Dec. 8, at SCC’s Jerry Sutton Public Safety Training Center, Salomon told the audience what it felt like to be pepper sprayed and tased. While she joked about “running as fast as you can” to avoid confrontation, she admitted, “Having to use ground defense techniques in real life and seeing how easily you can end up in a difficult fight for your life has a sobering effect.”
After 16 intense weeks, Salomon said with confidence that she and her fellow graduates not only had the basic skills, but the proficiency and mind set as well, to be law enforcement officers.
For more information on SCC’s NPS-SLET program, contact Curtis Dowdle, director of training, at cdowdle@southwesterncc.edu or 828-306-7040.
CUT: Class Corporal Stephanie Salomon, left, at Southwestern Community College’s National Park Service-Seasonal Law Enforcement Training Class #87 graduation Dec. 8.
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