On Saturday March 26th, 2011 the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office Explorer Post participated in the 5th Annual Scottsdale Police Explorer Competition. The competition was comprised of scenarios involving the following:

• D.U.I. Investigations
• High Risk Traffic Stops
• Active Shooter/Officer Down
• Range 3000 (discretionary shoot)/Firearms and marksmanship scenarios
• Domestic Violence Investigation
• Physical Agility Course

There was a total of 90 participants from the following agencies:

Peoria P.D., Glendale P.D., Pascua-Yaqui P.D., Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, Phoenix P.D., Tempe P.D., Mesa P.D., Scottsdale P.D.

Pinal County Explorers who participated in the competition trained extremely hard. For the last two and half months they gave up their Saturdays to train. The training was conducted on top of them already attending their normal weekly branch meetings and participating with numerous community service events. All of our Explorers either still attend high school or are employed. Their dedication to the success of their Explorer post is highly commendable.

The following is the individual results for Pinal County:

• FIRST PLACE TEAM OVERALL

Pinal County Sheriff's Office (ALL PARTICIPANTS)
-Expl. Lt. Lorenzo Teruya (San Tan Valley)
-Expl. Lt. Tyler Gordon (Casa Grande/Arizona City) -Expl. Sgt. Cooper Lang (San Tan Valley)
-Expl. Sgt. Brady Gibson (San Tan Valley)
-Expl. Sgt. Eleazar Leija (Casa Grande/Arizona City) -Expl. Sgt. Francisco Saucedo (Casa Grande/Arizona City)
-Expl. Sgt. Rachel Wheeler (Casa Grande/Arizona City)
-Expl. Jacob Jansen (San Tan Valley)
-Expl. Trey McHugh (Casa Grande/Arizona City)
-Expl. Matthew Mendoza (Casa Grande/Arizona City)
-Expl. Christian Pintor (Casa Grande/Arizona City)

• DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SCENARIO

1st Place: Pinal County Sheriff's Office
-Expl. Sgt. Cooper Lang -Expl. Sgt. Jacob Jansen

• HIGH RISK STOP SCENARIO

1st Place: Pinal County Sheriff's Office
-Expl. Lt. Tyler Gordon -Expl. Jacob Jansen -Expl. Matthew Mendoza

• ACTIVE SHOOTER SCENARIO

2nd Place: Pinal County Sheriff's Office
-Expl. Lt. Lorenzo Teruya
-Expl. Lt. Tyler Gordon
-Expl. Sgt. Cooper Lang
-Expl. Sgt. Brady Gibson
-Expl. Sgt. Eleazar Leija
-Expl. Sgt. Francisco Saucedo

• PHYSICAL FITNESS EVENT

2nd Place: Pinal County Sheriff's Office
-Expl. Sgt. Brady Gibson

Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “I am very proud of these young men and women and how they represented the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. We have the finest group of Explorers in the State. They assist our office on a weekly basis with events. During Country Thunder alone, they volunteered over 690 hours directing traffic and assisting our sworn members. Explorer Christian Pintor, who was later killed in a single vehicle car accident, was one of our finest Explorer’s who dreamed of becoming a Pinal Deputy. His passion and commitment to serve our community represents the finest of values of our young heroes. Exploring provides youth leadership training and mentoring. We are now expanding our youth Explorer program and if you would like to learn more information about our Explorer program please contact Lieutenant Tamatha Villar at tamatha.villar@pinalcountyaz.gov or 520-866-5199.”