FOREST PARK -- Competition Sunday among local Law Enforcement Explorers reinforced a basic rule of investigation: Ask the right questions before plunging in. Forget to ask the right question, and the Explorer might never find the bomb trip wire stretched across the entrance to a worker's cubicle among the maze of desks in an office.
The fake trip wire -- which set off a buzzer instead of a bomb -- was part of the bomb-scene set staged this weekend for the 24th Law Enforcement competition. About 170 Explorers competed, young men and women ages 14-20 from Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky interested in learning about police work.
They are members of local Explorer Posts, which are affiliated with local police departments and sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America.
"We tell them, "We want you to react like the first officer on a scene,' " said Col. Daniel Wolfangel, a Hamilton County Sheriff's deputy and the competition's honorary chairman. "We tell them, "You are not the bomb squad, you are a street officer.' "
Scenes included the bomb scare, a hostage negotiation, a burglary in progress, an auto accident, a traffic stop, a crime-scene investigation, and a domestic-violence situation.
The scenes were set up around the hallways, conference rooms, offices and parking lots of the large Union Central Life Insurance Co. headquarters at Mill and Waycross roads in Forest Park. Company officials have turned over the building to the competition for many years.
The Explorers trained for eight different events, then competed in six assigned at random when the competition began Saturday. The Explorers could opt to compete in a ninth event, firearms and marksmanship.
Explorer Jamie Penley, 19, checks for a pulse on a mannequin in a murder or suicide crime scenario Sunday.
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The competition's back-to-basics approach emphasized a police officer's need for "people" skills, such as the ability to interview the person who took the phone call about a bomb threat, said Capt. Jeff Corcoran, a University of Cincinnati police officer and bomb-scene judge.
The right question to ask the flustered janitor who took the bomb threat (a police officer playing the role): Did the caller say who was the bomb's intended victim?
The answer pointed the Explorers to a desk. Now was the time to use their knowledge of basic bomb-squad techniques, Capt. Corcoran said.
Start with the floor. He demonstrated by dropping flat on his stomach. There, now at eye level, was the trip string, strung across a desk opening and through a chair wheel. Time to call the bomb squad.
The competition teaches the Explorers self-reliance and leadership skills, said Tony Vonderhaar, a Boone County police officer.
"Every person coming through the Explorer program doesn't become a police officer," Col. Wolfangel said. "But we like to think they are better citizens because of what they learn here."
