Police to host public safety open house
The Vandalia Division of Police will hold a community-wide open house Thursday, July 14, at their offices, 245 James Bohanan Memorial Drive. The event is designed to give residents an opportunity to meet Vandalia police officers and public safety specialists in a relaxed environment.
Vandalia Police Chief Kurt Althouse said the open house will be interactive.
“We’ll have a lot of stations that we’re going to have set up where citizens can not only see something, but they can have an interaction,” he said.
There will also be numerous demonstrations.
“At one station we’re going to talk about our body-worn cameras and how they record the interactions our officers have with various citizens, and we’ll show some footage from body cams,” Althouse explained. “We’re going to have a TASER location where they’ll see a demonstration on how the TASER functions.”
Another demonstration will give visitors the opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of an officer.
“We have a video training simulator that officers go through for various topics such as use-of-force training.” Althouse said. “We’re going to have our guests see the system and then step up and experience it for themselves.”
Althouse said the hope is that residents of Vandalia come away with a better understanding of the challenges involved in modern policing. But he says that’s just one of the goals of the event.
“We want our residents to become more familiar with the staff who are here to serve them if there ever is an incident that they need the police,” he said. “We also want to have some positive interactions with the community.”
“Often times we’re called out to the scene of a crash or some other incident, and it’s not always a chance to have that interaction where you get to know each other a little bit better,” he said. “So that’s a goal here, to really engage with the community, have the community come out, learn about the police department, learn about some of the aspects of policing and just have a great evening together.”
Althouse said the relationship between his department and city residents has always been good.
“We are blessed to serve a great community where the residents communicate their appreciation for the services we provide,” he said. “This is an opportunity for the residents to come out, bring their families, talk to our police officers, talk with the dispatchers who they only hear over the phone and put a face to the voices that serve this community.”
There will also be food available.
The Vandalia Division of Police Open House is Thursday, July 14, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the Vandalia Division of Police, 245 James Bohanan Memorial Drive.