‘This is a fantastic event’
MAAC visitors observe public safety tools, techniques during annual demonstration day
Stewart McMillan looked over the vast Multi Agency Academic Cooperative campus as it was alive with activity Saturday.
“My vision was that tower, that building, and that’s where I planned to stop,” McMillan said as he pointed to two of the structures. The team behind the MAAC, however, has expanded it beyond his dreams.
The campus’ mission of training public safety professionals was highlighted during the fourth annual First Responder Appreciation and Demonstration Day on Saturday.
“We’ve really got the formula down pat now to make an event work,” he said.
State Sen. Ed Charbonneau, R-Valparaiso, was among many who observed Saturday’s event was bigger than ever.
“I think this is a fantastic event,” he said. “This is an event that people want to show up and take part in.”
Sgt. John Artibey, of the Gary Police Department, brought his K9 partner Fena, 4, who is half Dutch and half Belgian malinois.
“I actually raised her myself,” he said. “I purchased her myself to save the city money.” Artibey also trained her himself, saving the city thousands of dollars.
Fena is trained for narcotics and utility work.
“The best reward is finding a missing person or a suspect who has committed violent crime,” Artibey said.
Together, they’ve found an endangered elderly woman and an endangered young woman who wouldn’t have survived the extreme weather if they hadn’t been found in time, he said.
Gary’s police dogs and their handlers are required to train together at least 16 hours a month. They go well beyond that, often in their spare time.
Police officers spend more time with their dogs than their spouses, Artibey said. It’s a lifestyle commitment.
In 2011, Artibey and another officer founded the Gary K9 Association, to raise money for the city’s police dogs. The nonprofit’s books are open to anyone who wants to
see them, he said.
“I’ve put in thousands of my own money to get this started,” Artibey said.
Dogs are instructed how to acquire a target, first focusing on the suspect’s elbow, knee or other specific body part. The lucky trainer who agrees to be attacked by the dog wears a 40-pound padded suit for protection. That wasn’t fun while training in Wednesday’s high temperatures.
For the dog, “it’s all about reward, whether it’s verbal or a toy,” Artibey said. “It’s all about having fun” and pleasing the dog’s partner.
Gary officers recently had a reminder of how important a K9 partner can be. Falco was shot and killed in the line of duty last month, saving partner Angel Lozano’s life, Artibey said somberly.
Valparaiso firefighters also offered some somber moments, showing visitors how quickly a fire can destroy a room.
Since 2010, the number of fires is down 10%, but fire deaths are up 24% nationally, said Tim Stites, division chief for community risk reduction at the Valparaiso Fire Department.
People used to have wooden furniture in their rooms. Now plastic has become much more popular. Like carpeting, plastic is petroleum-based. “Fires burn hotter, faster, and people have less time to get out,” Stites said.
Stites and his crew torched a series of small rooms made out of wooden containers to show how sprinkler systems can quickly contain fires.
“It’s all about giving the occupants time to escape,” said Erik Hoffer, executive director of the Tinley Parkbased Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board. “Three to five minutes is all you have to get out of your home.”
The demolition of a former hotel in Valparaiso provided enough furniture for more years of these demonstrations, Stites said. Before the old hotel was razed, firefighters entered the building to throw the moldy furniture out the window to be housed in a trailer for the demonstrations.
Setting up three rooms for the demonstration shows visitors how fast a fire spreads with no protection at all, how long it takes for a smoke alarm to go off and how soon a sprinkler system starts putting out a fire, all in a comparable setting.
“You can fix wet, but you can’t fix burnt,” Hoffer said.
“This is like a supersized fire department open house,” he said.
At a Valparaiso Fire Department open house, maybe 50 or 60 people will learn these fire safety lessons. But at the annual event at the MAAC, hundreds of people get the message.
Schererville police Cpl. Dan Drexler, who heads the Alpha entry team for Northwest Regional SWAT, said the crowd at the MAAC event is pro-police, pro-firefighter and pro-military.
Kids and adults alike get a chance to experience some of the SWAT tools used by the multiagency team. A loud flash bang got the attention of the crowd. “It’s labeled as a distraction device,” Drexler said.
The SWAT unit does extensive training at the MAAC four or five months a year, he said.