It’s tough to be a cop these days, no matter how far or close you are to the front lines.
Eight officers are gunned down in Dallas, Texas. A few days later, three police officers are killed and three wounded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Same scenario. Race relations in many cities have been inflamed by violent confrontations between citizens and law enforcement officers.
What does this mean for local police officers, closer to home? The Sun Day asked this question to Chief Robert Porter, Deputy Chiefs Todd Fulton and Michael Klunk, and Officer Megan Racial.
Huntley’s cops deal mostly with traffic congestion on or near Route 47, burglaries, speeding or inattentive drivers, and an occasional murder. The village receives outstanding support, officers say, from a populace that is overwhelmingly cop-friendly. Its streets and neighborhoods are quiet and orderly, and gun violence is rare.
Asked about his department’s local reaction to what is happening in law enforcement nationwide, Porter talked about trust and accountability.
“We don’t have the challenges large cities face here, but we spend a lot of time building trust and accountability within our own organization and with our citizens,” he said. “We do that primarily by our accreditation through the national Commission on Law Enforcement Accreditation (CLEA). We have been accredited by this agency since 2010. A group of assessors visits our facilities every four years, reviewing our policies and procedures, and how we operate. They look at our incident reports, talk to all staff, evaluate our open phone line; it’s a very comprehensive process.”
Fulton agrees.
“We have an accreditation manager that monitors and coordinates our activities,” said Fulton, whose specialty in the department is support services and investigations. “This person works regularly with the CLEA people to make sure we are on track with what we do. We also have spot inspections periodically from ECLA focusing on specific matters.”
Klunk elaborated.
“This establishes trust with our community, and keeps us sharp in the conduct of our activities,” Klunk said. “We constantly strive to be aware of the challenges of race relations, and to not let our ourselves get too comfortable,” he went on. “Every incident we hear about elsewhere helps us heighten our awareness of the standards we must meet.”
His duties focus on the department’s daily patrol activities.
“We never want to let our guard down,” Klunk added. “We have a stable community made up of very supportive citizens, but we are also have a lot of migration through our community by people who are heading someplace else. The majority of these people are supportive of us and our activities, but a few are not. We can’t get complacent, and we sometimes have to make decisions in seconds.”
Racila provided a different perspective on the current law enforcement environment. She is a 17-year veteran of the department and is a sworn officer who does everything from conducting patrols, working on the community response team (with partner Ken Heagney), assisting at and responding to incidents, coordinating bike patrolling and making presentations to community groups, including in Sun City.
“We get a lot of immediate support from our families,” she commented. “After they heard about the Dallas incident, a lot of the wives and spouses of the department got together. They just talked about the challenges cops face and communicated their understand and support to all of us. It gave everyone a sense of camaraderie and understanding.” On a personal note, Racial said the Dallas incident was rattling.
“We put on a gun and badge every day, and we know there is a possibility we may not come back, and we are at risk being killed or injured in the line of duty. But the Dallas officers were just shot down randomly. That was so tragic and heart-breaking.”
All of four said they have recently experienced how serious illness can also affect a department. St. Leonard Marak has been battling cancer recently, and just a few weeks ago it was announced that he has been forced to take a disability leave while he deals with his medical condition. Porter said Marak hopes to beat the disease enough to return to duty, but his prognosis is uncertain.
“The gathering talked about Sgt. Marak and it was heartwarming to hear their support for his family,” said Racila.
Huntley doesn’t face what Dallas or Chicago do, but it is are using the information coming out of those communities to maximize its performance locally.
