About
Mission
Our mission is to bring together explorers and cadets from agencies in the region of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota and offer them high-quality law enforcement training. We want to help build confidence, leadership skills, and good citizenship with students while helping them make an educated decision about pursuing a career in law enforcement.
History
NDLEYA was started informally in the summer of 2017 by advisors from the West Fargo Police Department, Minot Police Department, and Mandan Police Department as a way of working together and improving training opportunities for explorers in our region.
The inaugural class of the Law Enforcement Explorer Summer Leadership Camp was hosted by NDLEEA at Camp Wilderness MN on June 9-11, 2017. 15 students from 5 agencies participated. Those agencies were US Customs International Falls, West Fargo Police, Minot Police, & Grand Forks Police.
August 2023
August 9-13, 2023 – We hosted the 2024 NDLEYA Summer Leadership Academy at Camp Grafton. It was attended by 15 students representing 3 agencies, which included West Fargo, Minot, and Watertown. Stearns County also assisted with the event. The students received a training session on Crisis Intervention/Negotiations a Minot PD Sargeant. Students participated in the Leadership Reaction Course and the Challenge Course again this year. Friday we conducted another full day of training at the MOUT site. The students were taught room clearing, shield work, door breaching, and emergency tactical medicine. We introduced a new walk through the woods scenario where students had to look for targets in the woods. We also introduced a training in the glass house, which was filled with fog. Students had to clear the glass house of any balloon targets. Following our usual schedule, the afternoon had the students and role players using airsoft pistols to increase their stress to put their skills to the test. Saturday was their scenario day, where the student’s spent the day functioning as a police patrol unit. Students received radio dispatches to various locations around camp to 7 different scenarios throughout the day. Those scenarios were Traffic Stops, Emergency First Aid, Negotiations, Firearms Simulator, Bomb Defusal Computer Simulation, & Intoxicated Person. Although the class size was small this year, the students had more time to focus on perfecting skills.
August 2022
August 10-14, 2022 – We hosted the 2022 NDLEYA Summer Leadership Academy at Camp Grafton. It was attended by 34 students from 6 agencies, which included Aberdeen Police, Mandan Police, Minot Police, Stearns County Sheriff, Watertown Police, and West Fargo Police. Training sessions included drill and ceremony, a presentation on UAS (drones), and a K9 demonstration courtesy of the Benson County Sheriff's Office. Students participated in the Leadership Reaction Course and the Challenge Course, which was a multi-station obstacle course. Friday was their scenario day, where the student’s spent the day functioning as a police patrol unit and were radio dispatched to various locations around camp to 8 different scenarios throughout the day. Those scenarios were traffic stops, domestics, loud party, firearms simulator, burglary response, mental health crisis, suspicious person, & downed officer. Saturday we conducted our usual full day of training at the MOUT site. The students were taught room clearing, shield work, door breaching, and emergency tactical medicine. In the afternoon, the students got to use airsoft pistols to increase their stress for a realistic training experience.
August 2021
August 11-15, 2021 – NDLEYA hosted the Summer Leadership Academy at the new location of Camp Grafton. It was attended by 31 students from 5 agencies including Aberdeen, SD; Mandan, ND; Stearns County, MN; Watertown, SD; and West Fargo, ND. Trainings included; radio procedures, crime scene processing, drill and ceremony, & room clearing. Students spent a few hours out at the Leadership Reaction Course working on team and confidence building. We also conducted a full day of training at the MOUT site where we covered room clearing, shield work, door breaching, and emergency medical treatment. The students got to use airsoft to take the training to a new level and up the stress for a realistic training experience. While on the MOUT site, we had a surprise visit from North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. He took a few minutes to talk with the students and pose for a photo. The last full day had the students respond to 8 mock calls at various locations around Camp Grafton. These included: Burglary Response, Crime Scene, Traffic Crash, Firearms Simulator, Traffic Stop, Motorist Assist, Mental Health Crisis, and Domestic. The final morning had the students take a tour of the Lake Region State College Peace Officer Training Program.
March 2021
March 15, 2021 – In an effort to better represent all member agencies and their youth policing programs (Explorers, Cadets, Youth Academy), Board members from West Fargo Police Department, Minot Police Department, and Mandan Police Department voted to change the name of the organization from "North Dakota Law Enforcement Explorer's Association" to "North Dakota Law Enforcement Youth Association". With that change, we modified our organization’s logo slightly to reflect this. We also purchased our first webpage to assist in promoting our organization and to provide better information to our member agencies. www.NDLEYA.org went active on March 18, 2021.
October 2020
October 2020 – Joint Training Operation was again held at Camp Grafton. The event was also extended an additional day. With the successful conclusion of this event, the board decided to merge the summer leadership camp, traditionally hosted at Camp Wilderness, and the Joint training operation, hosted at Camp Grafton, into the Summer Leadership Academy to be hosted at Camp Grafton in August.
June 2020
June 2020 – The planned inaugural North Dakota state conference had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
October 2019
October 2019 - Joint Training Operation had to be relocated from Camp Grafton due to 3 feet of snow at the training facility. The event was able to be relocated and shortened to a one-day training session hosted at a Mandan Police Department training facility. Participating agencies were: Mandan Police Department, West Fargo Police Department, and Minot Police Department.
June 2019
June 6-9, 2019 – NDLEEA’s 3rd year of the summer leadership camp hosted at Camp Wilderness, MN. 40 students participated from 5 agencies including: West Fargo Police, Minot Police, Mandan Police, Detroit Lakes Police, Grand Forks Police. We were also assisted in our training by Lake Region State College and the local Sheriff’s Department.
October 2018
October 19-20, 2018 – Joint Training Operation was held at Camp Grafton. The one day of training was focused on room clearing, door breaching, shield work, and emergency medical treatment. 23 students from Mandan, Minot, and West Fargo Police Departments participated.
June 2018
June 7-10, 2018 - NDLEYA's 2nd year of summer leadership camp hosted at Camp Wilderness, MN. 30 students participated from 4 agencies including: West Fargo Police, Minot Police, Detroit Lakes Police, & Mandan Police.
February 2018
February 22nd, 2018 – NDLEEA adopted a new logo for the new organization.
June 2017
June 9-11, 2017 - The inaugural class of the Law Enforcement Explorer Summer Leadership Camp hosted by NDLEEA at Camp Wilderness MN. 15 students from 5 agencies participated. Those agencies were US Customs International Falls, West Fargo Police, Minot Police, & Grand Forks Police.
Get in Touch
If you have questions or need to get in touch with an NDLEYA member, contact us using the form on the Contact page.