As a 16-year-old Running Start student from Naches Valley, Caleb Johnson had his sights set on becoming an attorney.
But after taking one of 鶹Ƶ’s criminal justice courses as an elective, Johnson’s career goals shifted to becoming a law enforcement officer and serving the community where he was raised. After completing his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Washington State University, Johnson achieved his goal by joining the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office in 2017.
Now a lieutenant, he’s partnering with YVC’s criminal justice program to expand opportunities for other students to enter the career through a six-month co-operative field experience — one of multiple efforts by the college to strengthen partnerships with local law enforcement agencies.
“When we talk about hiring talent within our community and bringing students up and giving that personal touch by investing in their education, that partnership with YVC is extremely important,” Johnson said.
ABOVE: Yakima County Sheriff's Lt. Caleb Johnson, second from right, talks to YVC criminal justice students taking part in a co-operative education field experience with the sheriff's office in December 2025. YVC students, from left, are Cade Terrill, Ashanti Morris and Josh Meiser. TOP: The YVC students learn about crime scene investigations involving vehicles recovered by the sheriff's office.
Building a partnership
Criminal Justice Instructor Teana Robbins says the program has long maintained connections with various law enforcement agencies, corrections departments, juvenile justice, federal agencies and private security services. Those connections can mean everything from classroom visits by professionals in criminal justice fields to tours of local facilities such as the Yakima County Juvenile Justice Center and Yakima County Jail.
Robbins said the program recently put extra effort into creating more co-operative field experiences (co-ops) for students — giving students an opportunity to integrate their classroom study with real-life experiences.
“Our students are mainly from this area and want to stay here,” Robbins said. “So not just bringing folks into the classroom to get to know them and add to their education, but actually placing students into those agencies to make networking ties is really valuable.”
Johnson first met Robbins as a YVC student before reconnecting through her volunteer service with Yakima County Search and Rescue. After a couple of conversations, he presented to one of her classes and the idea to develop a co-op program grew from there.
Today, the co-op program extends over two quarters, which gives YVC students more in-depth experience and an opportunity to build stronger connections with its staff. Students can obtain up to 250 hours of first-hand experience with the sheriff’s office, fulfilling a requirement of all YVC students pursuing their associate degree in criminal justice to complete a co-op at one or more agencies.
Yakima County Corrections Officer David Zanotelli, accompanied by his drug dog Luka, speaks to students in a YVC criminal justice class in fall 2025.
Gaining first-hand experience
Cade Terrill, one of three criminal justice students who participated in the sheriff’s office co-op during fall 2025, has been interested in law enforcement from a young age.
“This kind of seems like a calling to me to help other people and serve the community,” Terrill said. “You have an opportunity to put bad people behind bars and you’re helping the community be a safer, better place.”
During the co-op, Terrill and his classmates Josh Meiser and Ashanti Morris have had opportunities to ride along with deputies, observe dispatchers, learn about department regulations, watch the department’s forensics team in action and much more.
Terrill said the experience has taught him about the daily reality of law enforcement, rather than the dramatic action that’s depicted in TV shows and movies.
“A lot of the work is community engagement,” Terrill said. “You’re in a public role, you’re helping solve people’s problems no matter how big or small they are.”
He said co-op experiences riding along with deputies and observing dispatchers helped build on much of what he learned in the classroom.
“There’s definitely a lot of connections between the classroom and what I saw on ride alongs or what I saw in dispatch,” Terrill said. “Whether it’s case laws we use in class and the deputies are out talking about those same case laws or warrant processes and then seeing how the deputies put a warrant out and follow that process.”
Criminal justice student Cade Terrill gets a demonstration of how fingerprinting is done while classmates Josh Meiser and Ashanti Morris look on.
One area that all three of the students agreed came as a surprise — how much paperwork is required in law enforcement.
“The amount of paperwork did surprise me,” said Meiser. “After everything, there’s paperwork to do.”
The students have also observed the interactions between deputies and sergeants and the importance of teamwork that’s built among sheriff’s personnel. At the end of fall quarter, the students reviewed the Yakima County sheriff’s administration strategic plan for the next five years and delivered a presentation on their perspective of the plan from a community standpoint to Sheriff Bob Udell and other senior leadership.
Strengthening the workforce
Johnson said he can tell a difference in law enforcement personnel who earn their college degree from an institution like YVC before going through Washington state’s police training academy.
“The learning curve is a lot quicker,” Johnson said. “College provides those critical thinking skills that are really important in a place like Yakima County with roughly 65 deputies in various units serving the entire county. What that means is a lot of autonomy they’re given to do their jobs while representing the sheriff’s office and so those critical thinking skills and the trust we put in them go hand in hand.”
That’s why he and the sheriff’s office have prioritized the co-op experience — to help continually improve the quality of service that the agency provides to residents of Yakima County.
“If you’re investing in these students and their education, you have a potential employee for 25-30 years,” Johnson said. “You have the opportunity to have that face-to-face interaction and see their work style. It gives you so much more confidence in the person you’re hiring.”
In addition, just like many other careers, Johnson noted law enforcement is changing rapidly due to technological innovations.
“When we talk about the evidence room and some of these upcoming and developing job fields in law enforcement, being involved with [鶹Ƶ] allows us to also work with the education system and align it with where the industry is going,” Johnson said. “That gives us a chance to explain ‘Hey, this is where the needs are going to be locally, so let’s work together to prepare those folks.’”
Yakima County Sheriff's Lt. Caleb Johnson poses with YVC students near the conclusion of their co-operative field experience with the sheriff's office in December 2025.
Robbins says YVC’s criminal justice program will continue developing strong co-op programs across all three tiers of the criminal justice system — police, courts and corrections.
“Locally, law enforcement agencies, on National Night Out and other events really emphasize community,” Robbins said. “I think one of the important pieces of our co-op opportunities is that students get to better understand how they work with and for the community in different roles.”
Morris said the co-op experience has helped clarify her desire to pursue a career in criminal justice and her interest in working with juveniles in particular.
“The hands-on experience has definitely showed me that I do want to do this,” Morris said. “I definitely view deputies different from before. I view them way more positive than I used to.”
The co-op also solidified Terrill’s decision to pursue a career in law enforcement.
“It really has helped narrow down choices too,” Terrill said. “Before this internship I was really unsure about maybe going with city police or the county or something else. Doing this internship with Yakima County and seeing the interaction with other agencies, this is definitely the agency that I would want to pursue a career with."
Story and photos by Dustin Wunderlich, director of community relations.