Monrovia Police Explorers’ Big Win

(Left to Right) This is the award winning Monrovia Police Explorer’s Team and their advisors. In the front row are Sgt. Gerald Dehart and Explorers Cedrix Dohohue, Nicolas Salgado, Albert Tostado, Fayth Soto, Kylene Lewis, Vanessa Mills, and Summer Lager with Lt. Sarah Covarubbias, and Detective Richard Schneider. In the back row are Explorers Malik Robinson, Antonio Ybarra, Jordon Castillow, Valerie Hernandez, David Nogola, Jacob Luna and Hector Hernandez. – Courtesy photo

By Susan Motander

If you opted to watch the State of the Union Address and the Democrat response, you missed the Monrovia City Council Meeting held on Tuesday and would therefore have missed the presentation by Monrovia Police Lieutenant Sarah Covarrubias. Her presentation outlined the success of our local Police Explorer Post at the 21st annual Chandler Explorer Tactical Competition in Arizona. They won two major awards at the competition.

The competition takes place over a three-day weekend with the teams of explorers competing in tactical scenarios. This year there were 60 teams from all over the country. Monrovia’s team consisted of 14 explorers who had never competed before.

Monrovia’s Explorers received first place in the “Rapid Response scenario.” As Covarrubias explained to the council, this “was an ‘active shooter’ scenario where they were evaluated on their tactics, decision making and teamwork.”

She also proudly told the council that Monrovia’s police explorers also received the Detective Carlos Ledesma Award. This award is named for a Chandler Police Department officer who was killed in the line of duty. It is the most coveted award as it is presented to the team that showed the “greatest level of spirit, sportsmanship, and dedication during the competition” as Covarrubias told the council.

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