OLEAN — Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES criminal justice instructor Tim Emley and Staff Sgt. Kyle Kinney of the New York National Guard put Emley’s students through their physical fitness test last week.
Emley is in his 25th year of teaching criminal justice at BOCES — 20 years at the Ellicottville BOCES and the past five at the Olean Occupational Center. For much of that time, his classes have been participating with members of the military, from recruiters to officers in several branches of the U.S. services and National Guard and Air National Guard, in preparation for a possible military or law enforcement career.
“Nearly every single year we’ve done military PT testing,” he said. “This is a law enforcement and military class. Students come in with the expectation of one day either joining the military or becoming a law enforcement officer.”
Since Emley has been teaching at BOCES, over 150 of his students have joined the military. Nearly 75 men and women are wearing a uniform in law enforcement or public safety across the country, he said.
“That’s what I’ve been producing for the last 25 years,” he said.
Emley said he understands that the class and a career in the military or law enforcement aren’t for everyone. The class size may be 15 to 18 students at the beginning of the semester, but as the weeks go on, that number could drop to 10 to 14, he explained.
“I often say to them, ‘If you’re going to protect our country and you want to possibly wear a bullet-proof vest and carry a gun for a living, then you’d better be prepared,’ and I prepare them,” he said.
As part of this preparation, Emley said the classes do physical training four days a week — weight training on Mondays and Thursdays and running on Tuesdays and Fridays.
“We run in snow and rain and freezing temperatures,” he said. “We don’t take weeks off just because the weather is bad. That’s not building character.”
In the BOCES classroom, the curriculum is heavy and law-enforcement minded, Emley said, adding that he fills the role of both a basic training drill instructor and a police academy instructor, adding that there are times when he can be harsh and stern.
“Everything from intro to criminal justice to search-and-seizure laws, penal law to vehicle and traffic laws, crime scene investigation to accident reconstruction and several more,” he said. “These kids have a huge jumpstart on their way to law enforcement or military from my program.”
A former officer in charge of the Portville Police Department for 10 years, Emley currently works part-time for the Cuba Police Department.
“When I come off those night shifts or those weekend shifts and have to be to school the next morning, I tell my students what went on,” he explained. “I tell them the language that was used toward me. I tell them if I was spit in the face or wrestled to the ground or belittled. That’s giving them an idea of what the career is all about.”
Emley’s students have gone on to work as court officers, probation and parole officers, state troopers, sheriff’s deputies and local police, state, county and local corrections officers as well as security guards, border patrol and environmental conservation.
“Every form of law enforcement there is out there,” he added. His students are serving all over the country, “as far away as Port Arthur, Texas; Colorado; Kansas City; Tennessee; Kentucky; North and South Carolina, just to name a few states, and of course in New York state,” Emley said.
The Army Combat Fitness Workout looked for how many push-ups participants can do in two minutes and how long a participant can plank (holding your body in a straight line while resting on your elbows and toes) for with a goal of at least three minutes. Then they do a two-mile run — eight laps around the Olean High School track off of Wayne Street.
“The kids had been running for the past two months, doing planks and doing push-ups, among many other things,” Emley said. Other exercises they do include box jumps, kettlebell squats, chin-ups and more, in a rotation during classes.
Emley expressed his thanks to the Olean school district and Athletic Director Steve Anastasia for accommodating the class for their test and to Kinney for spending three to four hours with the class at the track.
“It was great,” he added. “I’m very, very grateful to the military men and women who come in and recruit my students. A lot of them have been very good to me over the years, and I can’t thank them enough.”
In addition to his years in law enforcement and instructing this class at BOCES, Emley also presents an annual COP Camp in Olean each spring, one of the biggest law enforcement job fairs in the state.
