Police Explorer still excited to be a cop even after dull ride-a-long

Conroe, Texas police explorer Luke O’Cyte took his first police ride-a-long Sunday night. During his eight hours riding with an officer from the Conroe PD, they did all of two traffic stops and were dispatched to only one service call. Still Luke is excited to become a police officer one day.

The 17 year-old joined the Explorer program in June. The post has a policy that explorers need to be a member of the program for two months and have CPR training before they can take a ride-a-long.

Soon after joining the Explorer post Luke took a CPR class. Then all he had to do was wait for his two month anniversary.

Luke told us that he wanted to do a ride-a-long before the school year started. Unfortunately his job at Saltgrass Steakhouse had him scheduled for every Friday and Saturday night.

“I knew that Sunday was going to be slow, but I wanted to get my first ride-a-long in before we got back to school”.

Even after such a slow shift Luke knows that being a police officer is his future goal. “Just sitting in that squad car, seeing all the switches and stuff on the computer. Most people only see this on TV, or from the backseat of the police car, but there I was in the front seat. How cool is that!”

Luke said he has already put in to have off on a number of Saturday nights during the school year. He wants to get as many ride-a-longs in before he graduates high school next May.

The post adviser for the Conroe Police Explorer program said this. “I am just happy he did not fall asleep. I have had so many officers bitch me out when an explorer dozes during a dull shift.”