by Dennis Dalman
The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office is now accepting applications from young people between the ages of 15 to 21 who are interested in exploring careers within public safety such as law enforcement, dispatch and corrections.
It’s called the “Explorer Program.” Its advisor, officer Eric Schultz knows first-hand how effective the program is. When he was 15, he too was a Stearns County Explorer, and one of his advisors was Steve Soyka, who had also been an Explorer and who is currently the Stearns County sheriff.
Schultz, a St. Cloud resident, is now a part-time police officer for Avon.
In an interview with the Newsleaders, he talked about the program and why it benefits so many younger people and the community at large.
The Explorer program typically has about 30 to 40 members in any given year. Those enrolled in the program, females and males, learn a wide variety of law-enforcement duties and public-safety work. Since 1976, when the program started, many Explorers have gone on to jobs with police and sheriff’s departments and some even members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Explorers learn the following: how to direct traffic, First Aid techniques, CPR, investigative work, helping out in the dispatch duties in the sheriff’s department, defensive tactics, how to handcuff suspects, how to subdue suspects in a safe manner and much more.
Recently, Explorers helped out with traffic and security at the annual “Holdingford Daze” celebration.
They also take part in ride-alongs with officers on patrol and train for competitions. Every year, hundreds of Explorers from throughout the state compete at a statewide competition, working in teams of four participants.
Schultz is gung-ho about the Explorers Program because he knows very well how important it was in pointing him to a satisfying career.
Born in St. Cloud, Schultz graduated from Tech High School, then attended the law enforcement program at the Alexandria Area Technical Institute, from which he graduated in 2007. He had always been attracted to public service and served as a member of the juvenile water patrol and a parks-patrol volunteer during his high school and college years.
After earning his law-enforcement degree, he started work as a correctional officer for the Stearns County Sheriff’s Department in 2008. He also did many other duties for the department. In 2022, he left full-time law enforcement and started working in the private sector, but he still worked part-time in various smaller agencies in Stearns County, including now as a part-time police officer in Avon.
Schultz and wife Kelsey have two children – a son, 8; a daughter, 2.
If anyone is interested in applying for the Explorer Program, contact Eric Schultz at Eric.Schultz@stearnscountymn.gov. He will then send application information.
Explorer Program participants help motorists at a detour, which is just one of the many public-safety skills they learn.
