Round Lake chaplain lauded for ministering to police
After about 35 years as chaplain to police departments, the Rev. Lisle Kauffman has gotten to know a typical officer's mindset.
Kauffman, the retired pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Round Lake, said he knows how police think and feel because he has been to countless crime scenes and other tragic situations in Lake County and elsewhere. He's been on call to comfort families in pain and the cops who respond.
“Police officers care,” said Kauffman, 75. “But you never get the headline that says, 'Police lieutenant so and so cared about the people he was involved with.' Even in an arrest, most police officers do not want to hurt the person they're arresting. Now, when you watch TV, that's not true. ... Most policemen do not want to hurt somebody they're arresting.”
Kauffman is so good at his job that he was selected with the Rev. William Wentink of Rockford as the namesakes for the annual statewide award for excellence in law enforcement chaplaincy. The men were honored with the first Wentink-Kauffman award in 2014, and they will see someone else receive it at the International Conference of Police Chaplains gathering in March.
Kauffman, who started as a police chaplain in 1979, has served Round Lake and other departments. He also is a commissioned chaplain for the Greater Round Lake Fire Protection District and has been summoned to assist after national tragedies, such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the New York terrorist attacks in 2001.
About 75 Illinois police chaplains belong to the national organization. Law enforcement chaplains typically assist crime victims, help police with death notifications, counsel cops after shootings and tend to prisoners' spiritual needs.
Round Lake Police Chief Michael Gillette said Kauffman is successful because of his finesse, tact and experience in relating to those who need help after a traumatic experience.
“Rev. Kauffman also understands what is happening in the police officer's mind and heart,” Gillette said. “And that is one of the unique things about Rev. Kauffman that is quite cherished in the Round Lake area. Everyone is comfortable with him. He doesn't — I'm not sure what word to use — he doesn't pontificate. Even the harshest individual can talk to Rev. Kauffman and not be judged.”
Bishop Ronnie White, the police chaplain in Chicago Heights, said Kauffman has been a mentor to him. White said Kauffman always has made himself available to younger chaplains and shares with them how he's handled a variety of experiences.
“As a young chaplain, I admired Lisle's demeanor and caring of others through not only his pastorate but his (police) chaplaincy,” said White, the Illinois representative for the International Conference of Police Chaplains.
Round Lake Mayor Daniel MacGillis said Kauffman's work has crossed many boundaries.
For example, Kauffman officiated at a burial service for a baby found in August 2005 at Waste Management Inc.'s Countryside Landfill on Route 83 in Grayslake. The newborn boy, with his umbilical cord still attached, had been placed in a shopping bag before being disposed of and brought to the landfill, authorities said.
“I worked with him when I was in the funeral business,” MacGillis said, “and the word 'minister' always comes to mind. In the funeral business, you're dealing with tragedy; people do not know what to do. And if there was anybody that ministers to their people — whether they're in his congregation or not — he is the man that's always been there to help.”
Kauffman said one case has stood out from many years ago — and it didn't involve a police shooting or heinous crime.
He received a telephone call from a former Round Lake police chief after a young woman was caught shoplifting at a drugstore. He was informed the woman was accused of stealing medicine for her sick baby, and authorities were considering criminal charges against her.
“The chief called me to come over (to the station) and said, 'Is there something we can do?'” said Kauffman, who led Calvary Presbyterian for 41 years. “And I said, 'Yes, we can buy medicine for her baby.' And we did. I went out and bought medicine for her baby. And here was a policeman who was saying, 'Yes, I've got a shoplifter, yes they want to prosecute, but are we going to send this girl home with a sick baby?'”
Kauffman said he hopes more clergy will see police chaplaincy as a worthwhile endeavor.
“You have to invest yourself in training, and you have to investment yourself in being open,” he said. “The other thing you have to be able to do is meet people where they are, not where you'd like them to be or wish them to be, because you will meet every denomination, every faith, atheists, every type of lifestyle. And you can never ask the lifestyle question. All you can do is say, 'What can I do to help?'”