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Patrolling the streets in a police car is all Matt McGrew ever wanted to do.

To prepare for a career as a police officer, McGrew, 23, of Poolesville began an internship with the Montgomery County Police Department last year, before he graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, in May 2009.

Now overseeing five summer interns at the 5th District Police Station in Germantown as a volunteer intern coordinator, McGrew is gaining experience in leading groups to go along with other police training he received in more than a year in the program.

"It's the excitement that attracts me to the job," McGrew said Thursday at the police station. "You don't know what to expect every day coming to work."

The county police intern program has existed for about 16 years and has seen about 180 graduates become Montgomery County Police officers, said Janis Froehlich, program manager for volunteer resources.

The unpaid internships last anywhere from six months to a year. In that time, interns learn to file tickets and conduct speed studies. They ride along with officers and learn how to conduct themselves as police officers. The program's $6,000 annual budget funds an end of the year luncheon for all of the program's participants, she said.

More than 150 college and high school students take part in the program each year, Froehlich said. More than 200 apply annually for the internship, she said. All interns must interview and pass a background check, Froehlich said.

This summer, there are 65 interns in the program throughout the six police districts, special operations and other departments, she said.

McGrew said the program will give him an advantage when applying for police jobs with agencies in and outside Maryland. He said the program has solidified his decision to become a police officer.

Cynthia LeFevre, 24, of Silver Spring wants to see more before deciding if she will go into law enforcement.

The University of Southern California graduate has been in the program since December and plans to enroll in law school at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in the fall. LeFevre processes applications of those applying for police internships. She said she wants to see how other departments work before deciding if a police officer's life is for her.

"I'm still not sure. I still want to do an internship with the FBI," LeFevre said.

Jon Strike said he's privileged to have the internship with the county police and plans to get all he can out of it.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, sometimes more often than that, Strike, 22, of Chambersburg, Pa., drives more than an hour to his internship in Germantown. The senior double majoring in criminal justice and sociology at Mount St. Mary's College Emmitsburg, Md., said he wants to work in the county as a police officer after he graduates. After more than two months in the internship program, Strike said he is sure this is the career for him.

"It really made me decide what I want to do," he said. "Back home, they don't really have an internship program like this."

Montgomery County Police Capt. Thomas Didone, commander of the 5th District, said the internship program is an invaluable training tool that participants can use if they decide to become police officers.

Interns take part in maintaining their designated stations, including cutting grass and cleaning the gym. The tasks help the interns understand the importance of team work and dealing with situations you may not want to deal with, Didone said.

"It's important to see if they did a good job in the different tasks or if they complained their way through it," he said. "There are a lot of tasks you have to do and sometimes you may encounter something on patrol you don't feel like dealing with. Doing different chores help the interns see that sometimes, you have to fight through things."

However, not all county police interns end up in law enforcement.

Patrick Yevsukov, 19, of Gaithersburg is a former county police intern who pleaded guilty in January 2009 to two felony charges of manufacture or possession of a destructive device with incendiary intent, misdemeanor theft for stealing police letterhead and unauthorized use of a police computer. In July 2008, police raided the home of Yevsukov's friend Collin McKenzie-Gude, 20, of Bethesda and found more than 50 pounds of chemicals, assault rifles, a school faculty list, a map of Camp David marked with a presidential motorcade route, two bulletproof vests and a document explaining how to kill someone at 200 meters. McKenzie-Gude was accused of intending to use the weapons to kill several people, including then-presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Yevsukov was sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing bomb-making chemicals, but in June, Circuit Court Judge Louise G. Scrivener reduced his sentence to 100 hours of community service and three years of probation. McKenzie-Gude pleaded guilty in September 2008 to possession of a destructive device, and was sentenced to 61 months in federal prison at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt in January.