Medford Police Department
Find out if this job is really for you — before you commit a career to it.
A real look at the job, before you build a life around it.
Plenty of people think they want to be a police officer. Far fewer have stood in a briefing, watched a traffic stop from six feet away, or written a report that somebody actually had to read. The Cadet Program exists so you can find out what the work is really like while you still have every option open.
The unit is built to develop future Medford Police Officers. That is its stated purpose — not a club, not a field trip. Cadets train alongside officers, take instruction from them, and are held to the department’s standards of conduct on and off duty. Some Cadets finish the program and go straight for the badge. Others decide it is not the career for them, and that is worth learning early rather than late.
Either way you leave with something: an education in how the criminal justice system actually works, hundreds of hours of service to your community, and the discipline and bearing that carry into whatever you do next.
Taught by the officers who do it every day.
Training splits three ways: what you need to know, what you need to be able to do, and how you carry yourself. Most sessions touch more than one. What gets covered in a given month depends on weather, instructor availability, and what is coming up on the calendar.
You will also
Real events, in front of people who know you.
Showing up is most of the job. Some of it is community service the unit turns out for year after year; some of it is supporting the department’s own training. Either way you will be in uniform, alongside officers.
Year-round, dozens of times
Officer training runs on scenarios, and scenarios need people in them. Cadets play those parts all year — which means you are inside the training officers actually get, not watching it from the hallway.
Winter
The Special Olympics Oregon fundraiser — law enforcement teams go into the cold water for a good cause.
Each April, Medford
Medford’s signature annual event. Cadets work traffic and crowd control along the route.
Mother's Day weekend, May
Downtown Medford’s spring arts festival, across Vogel Plaza and Main Street.
Memorial Day weekend
A multi-day festival on the Rogue River, supporting the agencies working it.
Each June
The parade at Rogue River’s National Rooster Crow weekend — traffic and crowd control.
Each summer
The Special Olympics Oregon torch run, carried by officers and athletes across the Rogue Valley.
Each July
Traffic direction and public assistance for the holiday parade.
Each summer, Jacksonville
The Storytelling Guild’s three-day festival at Britt Gardens — dozens of hands-on craft, science and storytelling booths, and a stage running all weekend.
Spring and fall
Helping the public safely dispose of unused prescriptions and documents.
The hardest week of your year.
Every Cadet attends the Washington Law Enforcement Explorers Advisors Summer Academy, held the first week of August. It is a week-long residential academy built to mirror a real one, and you train alongside cadets from agencies across Washington and Oregon. Attendance is not optional.
Instruction comes from advisors and officers from around the region, mixing classroom work with practical application. Expect to be pushed:
The academy runs at three levels — Basic, Intermediate and Advanced — and you work up through them over your time in the unit. Your certification level carries real weight: it determines when you can begin ride-alongs, and which leadership roles you are eligible to hold. The week ends with a graduation your family is invited to.
There is a ladder, and you climb it on merit.
The unit runs on a chain of command modeled on the department’s own. You start as a Cadet. Where you go from there depends on the certification you earn, how you carry yourself, and whether the people above you trust you with more.
You are assigned a senior Cadet as a mentor for your first six months. Learn the manual, show up, and earn your Basic certification — that is what unlocks ride-alongs.
Expected certification: WLEEA Basic Certificate or greater
Appointed by the unit’s Cadet leadership. You run a squad: keep the roster, notify your Cadets of duties and changes, mentor them, and report attendance and problems up the chain.
Expected certification: WLEEA Intermediate Certificate or greater
Appointed by the Captain. You take command when the Captain is unavailable, maintain the unit roster, and own onboarding and orientation for every new Cadet.
Expected certification: WLEEA Advanced Certificate
Appointed by the Unit Advisor, and the top of the Cadet chain of command. You plan meetings and training, set unit goals, and lead the Cadets under you.
The program is built to get you hired here.
A lot of what you practice is aimed squarely at the process you will face when you apply to the Medford Police Department for real. You will sit oral boards, take written tests, and write and defend your own resume years before it counts.
None of it goes to waste if you end up somewhere else. But it is not designed as a general-purpose youth program — it is designed to produce Medford officers.
Applications are accepted online each September.
What Cadets and parents ask us most.
There is no fee to join, and your uniform and equipment are issued by the department — they stay department property and you return them when you finish, resign, or leave the unit. A few things are on you: boots, an anchor belt, and undershirts, plus some spending money for academy week.
No. Cadets are non-sworn and do not carry firearms or non-lethal weapons. Batons, OC spray, handcuffs, knives and ammunition are all prohibited except during unit-sanctioned training. You do get firearms safety instruction, but only under a department firearms instructor or range master, with a vest, eye and hearing protection, and headgear.
No, and this one matters. You never take enforcement action, detain anyone, or make an arrest. If something happens in front of you, your job is to be a trained witness: get safe, get on the radio or phone to dispatch, give accurate details, and hold your position. You do not follow suspects.
Meetings are typically the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month, 5:00 to 7:00 PM, and you are expected at all of them unless an absence is approved in advance. On top of that: community events through the year, and the academy week in August.
Once you hold your WLEEA Basic Certificate. Ride-alongs are scheduled through your Advisor and you wear the Class C uniform. You are there as an extra set of eyes and ears — save your questions until the contact is over and you are back in the car.
You need to hold a 2.5 GPA or higher, and high school Cadets may be asked to turn in quarterly report cards. Talk to an Advisor early if you are struggling. The program is meant to support your education, not compete with it.
Any felony conviction is disqualifying. One misdemeanor conviction, or more than three traffic convictions, may be. Every applicant goes through an extensive background investigation — and being straight with us about your history matters more than having a spotless one. Integrity is the job. Lying at any point in the process, including leaving something out, will disqualify you on its own — even when the thing you left out would not have.
You need to live within Jackson County, Oregon. You also have to keep a current address and phone number on file with the unit.
The location is set by the Unit Advisors and is given to you when you are accepted. Email the Cadet Program Advisor if you need to know before then.
Cadets follow Medford Police Department policy on grooming and appearance — hair, tattoos, piercings, and the rest. Depending on the event you will either be in your issued uniform or in professional attire, and you are expected to be squared away either way. The full standard is in the Cadet Manual, which you receive when you join.
You have to come in with a sincere interest in it — that is written into the membership requirements. But part of the point is finding out. Nobody holds it against you if you go through the program and decide it is not your career.
What the program is, how your cadet is supervised, and what it asks of your family.
The unit operates as Public Safety Cadets Unit #2108. Public Safety Cadets is a national 501(c)(3) that partners with law enforcement agencies to run youth programs for ages 14–20, and requires every adult mentor to complete Youth Safety and Protection Training annually.
This is written into the manual: Cadets are never used in assignments requiring police authority. They do not detain, arrest, or take enforcement action. At community events they assist under the direct supervision of officers. If something happens in front of them, they are trained to get to safety and call it in — not to intervene.
Cadets are non-sworn and carry no firearms and no non-lethal weapons. Batons, OC spray, handcuffs, and knives are prohibited outside of sanctioned training. Firearms instruction happens only under a department firearms instructor or range master, with a Kevlar vest, eye and hearing protection, and headgear.
Cadets are supervised by department advisors at unit functions. At the summer academy there will be at least one male and one female advisor present for the full week.
The department does not permit fraternization between Cadets and adult leaders — regardless of age, and regardless of state law on age of consent. Cadets are directed to report harassment, discrimination, improper favoritism, or any other questionable behavior by a department employee immediately to the Unit Advisor or any MPD supervisor. Failing to report is itself grounds for removal.
The summer academy ends with a graduation ceremony, and families are invited. It is worth going to. A week of drill, testing and physical training is hard to picture from the outside, and graduation is the clearest look you will get at what your cadet actually did with it.
Contact our cadet program advisors to learn more, or apply online.
Officer Josh Doney
Officer Hannah Anderson