Police cadets learn beat smarts
CELINA — In the course of a police officer’s career, the majority of the time will be spent on patrol throughout that officer’s jurisdiction. On Saturday — and again on Monday — cadets at the Wright State University — Lake Campus Police Academy have been learning what to expect and how to conduct themselves while on patrol.
Guiding the cadets through this important phase of their training is retired Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Jim Bennett and retired Auglaize County Chief Deputy Mike Eberle. During the roughly 12 hours
of training cadets receive on patrolling, they have been taught some of the many aspects that make a good police officer including the different types of patrol, why patrol is important and how to respond to a variety of calls for service.
“What you learn here is the very basics of what it takes to be an officer,” Eberle told his students. “It will take months of on-the-job training and years of experience to become a seasoned officer. I expect you to make mistakes in this class and that’s OK to make a mistake here because this is where you learn.
“Where we don’t want you to make big mistakes is when you’re out working for the public.”
One of the most important things the instructors told the cadets to remember is to keep their integrity and to treat every person they come in contact with with respect. The class was reminded that they, “only have one shot” with their integrity.
“If you lie once — especially if it gets found out in court — you will never ever be able to be trusted again,” Bennett said. “Once you lose your integrity one time, it’s gone. You may as well go get another job somewhere else because none of your cases will go through court.”
To help protect that integrity, he told the cadets that they must be fair in the way they enforce the laws they will be sworn to protect.
“You have to do your job because once word gets out that you give breaks to your buddies or something like that, it’s not good,” he said.
He explained that officers have the authority to take away another person’s liberty but noted that a warning can sometimes be just as effective as an arrest.
“There are times that I have stopped people for a violation that I would typically write them [a ticket] for but because of circumstances, usually out of their control, I will just give them a warning,” he said. “It is OK to do that but never the other way around. You can’t let somebody talk themselves into a citation.”
He encouraged the future officers to think ahead of time what their thresholds would be for certain violations, such as speeding, and stick with those thresholds.
In continuing with the theme of thinking before acting, Eberle encouraged the cadets to practice good social skills and talk to the people they will be serving. He noted that having a good working relationship with the public will not only help the officer get to know their citizens but it can also lead to an easier time getting tips and information when something bad does happen. To help make those contacts easier, the retired officer told the cadets that looking and acting professional will help the officer be perceived as the responsible and dependable person the community will rely on in their time of need.
“Do you think someone is going to respect you and want to talk to you if your uniform is all wrinkled, you have ketchup dripped down the front of it or your badge is crooked and dirty?” he asked. “Heck no, they expect you to look good and look like you can do the job you signed up to do — you need to reassure them that you can protect them and the first step to that is to look good when they call you.”
In addition to looking sharp, the cadets have to be sharp mentally and be ready to handle anything that can be thrown their way.
“There is no such thing as routine in police work,” Bennett said. “There are no routine traffic stops, no routine patrols. As soon as routine sets in, complacency is not far behind and complacency is dangerous in this field.
“This is not a job where you can just go through the motions and put in your eight hours so you can go home. You need to have that awareness any time you do anything; a call can go from calm to a struggle in the blink of an eye.”
To give the cadets experience of how the dynamics of calls can change and how their actions can affect the outcome of a situation, Bennett and Eberle enlisted the help of Auglaize County Sheriff Sgt. Justin Chisholm to put cadets through a series of scenarios that could come up during their careers. The different situations assessed how the cadets handled the stresses of “routine” duties and to evaluate areas the cadets could improve on going forward.
“We want you and the public to be safe while you’re out there,” Eberle told the students. “Don’t put yourself in a position of danger because you get caught up in the adrenaline rush — slow yourself down and think about what you have to do. The No. 1 goal of each shift is that you go home safely.”