Betty Fay, a 58-year-old homemaker, was terrified when she discovered a Peeping Tom gawking through a window of her Joliet home. Fay says other neighbors have seen someone lurking outside their homes as well.
Jim Gronemann, a 55-year-old railroad worker, is concerned about the gang graffiti that’s cropping up in his neighborhood on Joliet’s West Side. And Frank Brady, who has lived on the East Side of Joliet for more than 20 years, said there was rarely any trouble in his close-knit neighborhood until recently, when some of the homes on his street were burglarized.
“It was like we had no problems in this area, and then all of a sudden, there are problems,” explained Brady, 47. “When one of the homes was broken into, the police were called, and we couldn’t believe how long it took for them to respond. None of us was very happy about that.”
Crime that hits home has drawn eight women and six men — Fay, Gronemann and Brady among them — to a recent 15-week session of the Joliet Citizen Police Academy, held on Wednesday evenings at the department’s new headquarters in downtown Joliet.
Police Chief Joseph Beazley explained that to some, it may appear that the police are not doing their jobs, or maybe exceeding their boundaries, but allowing civilians a look at the rules, regulations and policies followed by police can help eliminate misunderstandings.
“The program is intended to create a more informed citizenry. The people in the community are the best ones to protect themselves and their families,” Beazley said. “After taking such a program, people are more likely to understand the work involved in being a police officer and why sometimes it may take so long for officers to respond to calls.”
Academy participants can take what they’ve learned back to their neighborhoods and serve as educators as well as additional eyes and ears of the police force. The training is free (Beazley estimates cost to the department at a total of $1,500 per 15-week session), and registrants undergo background checks. Participants learn how to operate radar equipment, engage in a simulated gunfight (using lasers) and delve into myriad aspects of police work.
“We incorporate a lot of audience participation, humor and real-life drama, so the classes are interesting to these folks,” said Sgt. William Day, training supervisor of the Joliet Police Department and academy instructor.
The Joliet department offers two academies each year, spring and fall, taught by officers from every aspect of law enforcement. Topics include criminal and traffic law, laws of arrest, use of force, “verbal judo” (oral communication tactics), crime prevention, neighborhood policing and K-9 patrols.
During one session, a captivated audience observed a drug search and suspect-apprehension demonstration starring a German shepherd named Dingo from the department’s K-9 unit. Dingo followed his nose around the room and in a matter of seconds found the marijuana and heroin that Sgt. Dennis Goron had planted.
“The dogs are trained in article search, drug detection and tracking,” Goron explained. “Everywhere people go, they shed skin cells that carry (their) scent. A dog’s nose is extremely sensitive and can pick up those scents with a great deal of accuracy.”
He added that the dogs can be friendly and approachable, then transform into aggressive animals that attack on command. To demonstrate, Goron gave Dingo a one-word order that sent the dog after another officer outfitted in protective gear. Dingo latched onto his co-worker’s arm, releasing only when he heard another one-word command.
“You really learn that you can’t mess around with these dogs. They have a job to do, and they’re trained just like police officers,” Day said.
During the second class, Goron led a discussion on “verbal judo.”
“It’s not what you say but how you say it. We can defuse a potentially dangerous situation just by communicating effectively,” Goron said.
Communication involves not only talking but also body language, inflection and eye contact.
“You have to learn to read all the clues that are given,” Goron explained. “For instance, an officer should be wary if suspects are tense and wringing their hands nervously, or they give very short yes or no answers, or answer you with long dissertations. You know they are trying to draw you away from the subject.
“Looking over their shoulder can indicate a desire to flee,” he said. “We need to remain in control of the situation so we find a common ground. If someone is refusing to cooperate, we can say, `Hey, we should probably get you down to the station and get this over with. That way you can get back home, watch TV or get back to doing whatever you were doing.’ We try to defuse the situation by getting them to calmly cooperate. We want them to feel that we have their interests in mind too.”
The latest session of the academy, which is limited to residents of Joliet, started March 18 and ended with a graduation ceremony Wednesday. According to Beazley, the citizen police academy concept originated in England in the late ’70s and started on this side of the Atlantic in Florida in the mid-1980s. He brought the citizen police academy concept to Joliet in 1993, and to date 151 civilians have completed the course that bridges the gap between the police and those they serve and protect.
“What we have now is what you could call revolutionized policing,” said Beazley, who explained that peace-keeping has changed, sometimes for the worse, with modernization.
“Constables would patrol their beats on foot. Then came the squad cars and two-way radios. We’re attempting to re-establish personal contact with the public,” Beazley said. “We want our officers to have a sense of ownership and pride in regard to the sector to which they’re assigned. The goal is to know the people in that neighborhood and know what problems exist in that specific area. The officer will do everything in his power to keep his sector safe.”
The citizens who attend the academy are a diverse group, young and old, with such occupations as executives, homemakers, students, business owners, school administrators, electricians and retirees. Their motives, however, are much the same: to become better informed. Bang Long, 53, is the co-leader of the Joliet Volunteer Spotter Program, a group responsible for monitoring handicapped parking spaces and reporting offenders to the police.
“We’re the eyes of the police. Sometimes these violators become belligerent about the situation. I took the course to find out what my role should be in that circumstance,” explained Long, who attended parts of the current session to make up for two segments he missed during the previous academy.
A lifelong interest in police work inspired Michael Smith, 28, to join the program.
“Police deal with the high and low end of members of the society. I wanted to know more about the city of Joliet and see how the police system works,” said Smith, a correctional officer at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, who hopes to someday become a police officer. “Right now, I deal with the lowest of the low. I had a prisoner throw urine in my face a few weeks ago. These guys will turn on you and threaten to kill you over nothing. I think I can contribute to the program with some of my experience at Stateville.”
Academy students get a chance to accompany police officers on their beats.
“I wanted to work the midnight-to-4 a.m. shift. I’m a daredevil. I wanted to see the action,” said Toni VanGampler, 36, a mother of three who graduated from the Joliet program in 1996. The ride-along includes an introduction to various squad car gadgets such as the police radio, on-board computer, lights and siren.
VanGampler said her favorite part of the program was the firearms training simulator, a training device that displays a succession of hostile scenarios on a large screen. Students armed with a laser pistol are instructed to shoot the bad guys in order to protect themselves, their partners and innocent bystanders.
“You really get a different feeling about police officers by using the simulator. It’s like being on the other side of the fence,” Day explained. “You’re aware of the stress levels, and you kind of have an idea of how the police feel.”
Citizen police academies take place regularly at other local departments, including Matteson, Crest Hill, Shorewood, Lockport and Morris.
“I think the biggest benefit of the program is that we’re developing reporters for the police department. These people become better witnesses to crimes and readily assist at accident scenes as a result of what they’ve learned in this class,” said Morris Police Chief Doug Hays.
Many graduates of the Morris program are involved in volunteer service programs, which include arming civilians with radar guns to help make speeding assessments.
“We’re able to put these people to work for us. By taking radar for us, we are better able to see where we need to place actual police officers to write out the tickets for the offenders,” Hays explained.
Participants in the Joliet Citizen Police Academy also learn how to use radar guns and will be allowed to use the device in one of their citizen policing programs.
“If you feel like you have a lot of reckless, speeding drivers that drive down your street on a regular basis, we’ll give you a radar gun. You can sit out on your front porch and record the time, date, where the offense occurred, the speed of the vehicle and the license plate number,” Beazley said. “We will then notify the registered owner of the vehicle with a warning letter saying that they were spotted and should beware.”
If enough speeders are recorded in a specific location, a police officer will regularly target the area and issue tickets to the violators.
Fay, Gronemann and Brady agree they’ve been empowered by their academy sessions. Fay decided the best way to deal with the peeper, whom she recognized as a neighbor, was to confront him. And Gronemann and Brady said the the academy heightened their awareness of activities in their neighborhoods.
The Citizen Police Academy isn’t intended to create pseudo-cops, Beazley explained, but to produce informed citizens.
“Officers aren’t given the same respect they were given 40 years ago. Kids used to wave when a squad car drove by. Now they do a different kind of wave, and it involves the middle finger,” Goron added. “We hope that what we’re doing here can begin to change all that. We don’t just want the people to see someone in a uniform. We want them to know the person behind the badge.”
