EXCHANGE: Kids learn policing at Junior Training Academy
CHATHAM, Ill. (AP) - Kids had probably not played a game of hide-and-seek like this before.
At the end of a Junior Training Academy earlier this month, 20 kids, who had spent the day operating radar guns and investigating a "crime scene" for clues, became "cover officers." They were helping police dog Dagz and his handler, Chatham Police Officer Jacob Bouldin, locate Officer David Leach, who had hidden in the small park on the Village Square.
Setting off in a pack, some more sure where Leach had hidden than others, Bouldin and Dagz made relatively quick work of the search, much to the delight of the "cover officers."
"How do you think he found him? (Dagz is) smelling (Leach's) human odor," Bouldin reminded the group.
Leach said that this is the first time the department has held a youth training academy and enrollment filled up quickly. He said it further cements relationships the police have with kids.
"We're very involved in the (Ball-Chatham) schools," Leach said during Thursday's event. "We give safety presentations and talks about bullying. (To the older students) we talk about the Fourth Amendment and probable cause.
"This (training academy) is designed to give them a glimpse of what we do as police."
Not surprisingly, Dagz, a German shepherd who turns 3 years old this month, was a big hit.
During one demonstration, Bouldin set out five buckets, filled separately with beef jerky, tennis balls, rubber toys, potato chips and a training aid that smells like an illegal drug.
"Dagz is only supposed to find the illegal drugs," Bouldin told the group. "If he finds the tennis ball, that doesn't help us, right?"
On cue, Dagz sniffed out the training aid, announcing his finding by barking.
Even when the kids re-arranged the buckets, Dagz was equal to the task.
They got see Bouldin's K9 squad car. Bouldin explained to them the cruiser is kept cool because of Dagz's thick coat of fur.
If the air conditioning fails, he said, an automatic sensor goes off, the windows go down and Bouldin is alerted to the trouble by a special pager.
"Dagz is usually in the back rocking to rock music," Bouldin told the group.
Dagz's training - Bouldin and Dagz spend two full days a month training in Springfield - and work acumen left everyone impressed.
"He works hard to find things," said Aidan Schwartz, 8, of Chatham.
"My favorite part was when Dagz was trying to find (the training aid that smelled like an illegal drug)," said Avery DeJaynes, 9, of Chatham.
"He's a nice dog," said 10-year-old Dexter Groth of Chatham, "and pretty cute."
The junior cadets got to hit the sirens and lights on the squad car.
Braden Beavin, 10, of Springfield, and Mitchell Schultz, 8, of Chatham, found out how difficult it was to try to escape from the secured back seat of one of the cruisers.
So did Mahi Chanpura, 9, of Springfield.
"I got to be the bad guy," Chanpura said.
"But it was just for fun," she quickly added. "I didn't do anything."
Margo Goldstein and Ian Bostrom, both 9, were trying to catch would-be speeders on Main Street with a radar gun.
Transgressors got a stern rebuke from Goldstein.
"Slow down!" Goldstein admonished.
"Sometimes they don't listen," Leach said.
CPD Officer Scott Williams led groups through a "crime scene re-enactment." Part of the demonstration was dusting for fingerprints, using a mix of volcanic ash with little bits of metal.
The cadets dabbed the brushes over sheets of paper to reveal, to their delight, their fingerprints.
"You see the lines on your thumbs?" Williams asked, in explaining the procedure. "Do you know that not a single other person in the world has the exact same lines that you have? "We constantly have a little bit of oil and moisture on our fingers, so when you touch an object you leave a little bit of oil. That's what actually transfers the fingerprints."
The day began with a tour of police headquarters where dispatcher Dacia Marsaglia works.
"Should you call 911 if you need help with your homework?" Marsaglia asked the group.
"No!" they shot back in unison.
"What if your brother takes your toy?"
"No!" they answered again.
"What if your house is on fire?"
"Yes!" they shouted.
At the end of the two-hour session, participants got a certificate of completion, a CPD patch and a T-shirt.
Zane Perry, 11, of Loami said he wants to be a Navy SEAL or FBI SWAT officer.
"When I think of police, I think of people who protect and serve," Perry said. "I've seen the police in action, usually handling crashes."
Leach said with Thursday's turnout, he's hoping the CPD can put on future training academies.
"We want (these kids)," Leach said, "to feel comfortable around officers and build a level of trust with them."
___
Source: The (Springfield) State Journal-Register, https://bit.ly/2wFB1sy
___
Information from: The State Journal-Register, http://www.sj-r.com