AMHERST — Clicks and clangs sounded in the tiny gymnasium as handcuffs secured their captives’ skinny wrists. The “officers” wore gym shorts and colorful sneakers, the summertime uniform of middle schoolers. So did the “suspects.”
“Congratulations!” Amherst Police Sgt. Brian Daly shouted to the group of handcuffed and unbound adolescents. “You made your first arrest. Who brought cuff keys? Anybody?”
The handcuffs went on as Daly, the youngsters and a handful of other actual police officers – now unshackling the children – were in the midst of the third day of the Amherst and University of Massachusetts police departments’ Police Youth Adventure Academy.
The free, week-long program, now in its seventh year, gives incoming sixth- through eighth-graders a hands-on way to learn about law enforcement, from K9 units to fingerprinting and forensics.
Wednesday morning focused on defensive tactics and use of force. Blocks, strikes and baton use were among the 2 ½-hour curriculum.
Only a couple of the two dozen or so youngsters have much interest in a career in law enforcement, Amherst Officer Yvonne Feliciano said. But even though some of the lessons mimic what trainees might see in a police academy, the camp is more about building relationships.
“It’s something where they can see what we do, and we can interact with the public,” she said.
In the small gym of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Daly ran the children through a series of drills and games. For much of the session, they stood in three long rows while Daly showed them various maneuvers, like how to put a hand around an attacker’s shoulder and strike with an elbow, or how to vocalize their discontent while they struck with a fist or blocked a knee.
“Low block, move!” he shouted repeatedly during one drill.
“Get back!” the children shouted in unison at invisible attackers.
During the striking drills, the room filled with thumps as the youths rammed their knees and elbows into pads held by officers. Some of the smaller or more timid campers resembled moths flying into closed windows, but some of the more enthusiastic ones managed to send the much larger officers moving a step or two back with their blows.
“Usually (this day) is the highlight of the week every year,” Daly said while the youngsters ate watermelon during a break. “They get to let out some aggression.”
After the break, he demonstrated how police use batons and quizzed them on where to strike attackers using a traffic light system. Hitting muscle-dense “green” areas, like thighs, causes pain but no permanent damage; “yellow” areas, like elbows, may sustain more damage but heal; and “red” areas – the head or spinal column – could suffer serious damage if hit.
He reminded his young audience that officers have to determine what’s a reasonable response in self-defense situations, and they have to react quickly.
“The world that we operate in as police officers is not minutes,” he said. “It’s fractions of a second that you have to make the decision.”
But along with the thumps and shouts and moments of seriousness came laughter. Daly cracked jokes, like when he said the loser of a foot race between two campers would have to do 10 push-ups, then ordered one of the racers to run backwards – to simulate how hard it is to get away from an attacker with a knife.
The peak of the campers’ joy came at the end of the session, when officers pushed mats together at midcourt and outfitted some of the youngsters with head protection and gloves. They were to show the skills they had learned, but they wouldn’t fight each other. Instead, Amherst Detective Greg Wise and UMass Officer Kurt Wilkins walked into the gym looking like cartoon villains.
Wise wore poofy body armor color coded with green, yellow and red. Wilkins donned slightly sleeker black foam armor. They took turns fending off – and eventually succumbing to – 45-second attacks from the children while the young onlookers shouted and goaded on their peers.
“Knees!” Daly shouted at the fighting campers. “Keep fighting! Don’t give up!”
Liam Coughlin, a tall 12-year-old who had hit enthusiastically throughout the morning, retired to the sideline after sparring.
“It’s fun getting to see these guys not in uniform and to see them as human beings,” he said. “They’re really nice.”
Coughlin enjoyed learning the self-defense skills, he said, but he thought it was even more important to see how officers defend themselves and that the public needs to be aware of the difference between self-defense and hurting people.
“It’s a thin line,” he said. “As we’ve seen in the news, it’s been crossed a lot lately, and it’s sad to see. We need to teach it in the right way.”
Daly regrouped the kids to send them off.
“Did you guys have fun?” he asked.
“Yes,” they answered in unison.
“Did you find any of it interesting?”
“Yes!”
“That’s all we want.”
Jack Evans can be reached at jackevan@indiana.edu.