Photo by Harry B. Scheeler Jr.

COURT HOUSE — “Good is the enemy of excellence” said Cape May Police Academy Di-rector Gary Schaffer as he addressed the 2008 Youth Police Academy recruits at the Cape May County Public Safety Training Center.

Character building was a key emphasis instilled in the sixteen recruits ages 11-13 that par-ticipated in the week-long academy hosted by the Ocean City Police Department’s Commu-nity Policing unit. The academy was the vision of Ocean City’s new Police Chief, Chad Cal-lahan whose key focus as new chief involves more community policing and interaction with the public.

Director Schaffer, Patrolman Randels, Patrolman Reichanet, Patrolman Cusack and Lt. John Werley (Ret.) talked to the recruits about the importance of respect, discipline and honor, core values in law enforcement they hoped the recruits would continue even if they did not find there way to a career in law enforcement.

Director Shaffer a 25-year veteran of the Ocean City Police Department and graduate of the FBI Academy expects nothing less then “excellence” from his recruits right down to the correct spelling on reports.

The Youth recruits received a small sampling of the 800 hours training police trainees re-ceive in the 22 week long academy, which includes, physical training, activities with the traffic safety unit and detective bureau and demonstrations by the County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit and County SWAT team.

R.J. Hoffman 13 of Mays Landing participated in the Academy while vacationing in Ocean City where he hoped one day to be part of the Beach Patrol, but now after his experience in the academy he is rethinking his future carrier plans.

“This is very interesting we get to learn about everything they do”. “I am defiantly inter-ested in some type of law enforcement carrier” said Hoffman just after fatally shooting a man that approached Hoffman with a knife that failed to comply with his orders to “drop the weapon” in the academy’s state of the are FATS firearm simulator.

Patrolman Randels hopes to hold an academy next year “This has been a great experience for us and the kids are having a great time” said Randels.

The academy continues through this week following graduation on August 22.