About Us
Our History
The East Lyme Police Cadets were founded on February 22, 2001 and known as the East Lyme Police Explorers and affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America as one of their Learning for Life Programs. Initially, we started with five charter members who were from East Lyme and the surrounding communities. Of those five members, three are now police officers in various police departments around the area.
In 2010, after breaking ties with the Boy Scouts of America, we became known as the East Lyme Police Cadets. We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that has youth between the ages of 13-21 who are interested in community service and possibly a career in Law Enforcement whether it is being a local officer, state officer or even a federal officer. Some have joined the ranks of our military and have served overseas numerous times. We have even had some youth move on, to become firefighters out of state.
Currently, SIX of our former members are now police officers in the local communities in Southeastern CT. One is a postal inspector in upstate New York. Due to this program's success, we have cadets moving on towards careers in computer forensics, computer networking and law enforcement in general.
The post currently has 12 members in the program consisting of both boys and girls. We have a cap on membership at 25 youth so that nobody gets left out of the training and events. Our members come from East Lyme, Montville, Salem, Waterford, Old Lyme.
We are members of the Northeast Regional Law Enforcement Educational Association (NERLEEA) which provides several competitions and even a summer police academy held during the summer. We provide assistance to the Town of East Lyme through traffic control, crowd control, manual labor with Ledge Light Health District projects and helping the community after major disasters.
We conduct a food drive annually in November, which helps food pantries not only in East Lyme but also in surrounding communities. In 2019 we collected 236 Turkeys and over 1 TON of non-perishables.
In 2017, we have purchased new radios, obtained our own licensed radio frequencies and started our newest endeavor; The annual Halloween Haunted Trail. The Halloween trail just celebrated its 3rd year. It has been a great success with those in the community andwe hope to continue for years to come.
On February 22, 2021, we turned 20 years old!! Where has the time gone? We have had over 175 youth go through our program and several have become police officers in East Lyme and the surrounding towns. Some have become firefighters, EMT's and paramedics. We have had several go on to the military where they have served our country with honor. We couldn't be more proud of all of our current and past members and their accomplishments.
COVID has been rough on us for the 2020/2021 years. We were limited with holding meetings, weren't able to participate in competitions and were unable to take our special trips as a group. We are hoping that much of this is behind us and that this program can start functioning as it used to.
We will add to the history as time permits.
Get Involved!
We are always looking for volunteers to help us make our Walk of Horror a reality. We'll help you find a way to volunteer that best suits you.
Thank You
We couldn't accomplish our goals without the help of supporters like you. Thank you for your time and donations that makes this possible!
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We are dedicated to improving the lives of those in our community. Your contribution today helps us make a difference.
