Staff Writer 

“Cops!” a man shouts before disappearing into a boarded-up building.

Patrick Flynn, 17, and Greg Morrill-Sarno, 18, run inside, waving pistols and hollering. In less than five minutes they corner two armed men upstairs and convince them to lie on the floor. 

“Break,” Scarborough police officer Scott Vaughan shouts, putting an end to the training session.

The two formerly armed men, also Scarborough police officers, stand up and begin to discuss the method the two teenagers, members of the local Law Enforcement Explorers post, employed to enter and “arrest” the “outlaws.” Flynn and Morrill-Sarno were the first pair to complete the scenario without a shot being fired. 

“I thought there were going to be a lot more people,” Morill-Sarno said. “I can’t believe there were just two of them.”

Vaughn said the exercise is designed to teach aspiring police officers how to make the decision to pull the trigger. To prepare the Explorers, Vaughn shared some of his own knowledge.

“You need to make up your mind and do what you need to do,” he said. “When you get hit, the fight’s not over. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard of suspects taking multiple hits before going down. Until I say ‘break,’ the fight’s on.”

More often than not, the lesson ends with airsoft pellets and paint ball ammunition flying, Vaughn warned Explorers before they entered the house.

“This was supposed to be a no-win scenario and you guys didn’t shoot,” Vaughn told Flynn and Morill-Sarno. “Good job.”

The “shoot or don’t shoot scenario” is just one of the ways 20 members of the Law Enforcement Explorers posts from Scarborough, Mexico, Gorham, Saco and Auburn were tested last weekend during the second annual Law Enforcement Explorers Conference, Community Resource Officer Joe Giacomantonio said. 

In addition to raiding the old Snow Farm building on Route 1 near the Saco border, Explorers fired real pistols at the Fish and Game gun range, made high-speed driving maneuvers at Beech Ridge Speedway and were challenged with domestic violence scenarios during the three-day conference.

“I like the shooting the best,” 15-year-old Gorham resident Dominic Deluca said. “This whole thing is fun, though.”

Giacomantonio said the three-day conference could be considered an “abbreviated” version of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, and is much more intense than the five-day Explorers Conference, hosted at the academy in Vassalboro by the national organization each summer. 

Giacomantonio said explorers are instructed to adjust their mindset to get through the three days successfully.

“We have these kids running from 9 a.m. to ten at night. The only downside is that we’re up too, so we’re all a little tired,” he said. 

“We tell them that our community is under a storm; during storms we don’t eat or sleep very much.”

So far, Giacomantonio said the conference has helped groom two full-time officers for the town.

“Not only is it a community outreach tool, but were able to cultivate two people who have worked their way up to a full time officer,” he said. “We want to try and give them a taste of anything that we can do safely, which hopefully will give them some real insight.”

When it comes to funding the conference, Giacomantonio said cost is kept at a minimum by officers who volunteer their time and the generosity of local property owners who allowed access to their properties for the drills. Explorers pay a $55 fee to attend, he said.

Staff Writer Nate Jones may be contacted at 282-4337, ext. 233.