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by Kevin O'Connel As I'm writing, I've been trying to process all of the great information received from the 1999 TEAM Conference. So many great ideas...how can I put them all to use? But unlike many conference attendees, my career is not in the field of adventure learning or education. I am a Police Officer. So maybe you're asking yourself, "Why is a police officer at a conference for experiential and adventure educators?" The first year I registered, I was asking myself those same questions. Now, after attending for three years, I ask the question, "Why aren't more police officers attending this type of conference?!" In many ways we become what we say we are. Some in my profession call themselves Law Enforcement Officers and that is what they focus on as a goal. Some call themselves Peace Officers, with peace being their goal. The interpretations are interdependent: we use law enforcement as one of the many tools to reach the goal of peace. There is, however, an underused weapon I call the positive police experience and it begins with our young people. REMEMBER OFFICER FRIENDLY? Like many Police Officers today, much of my work is within the school system. This is a tremendous change from past police/school relationships. In the past, a police officer visiting a school was a "one-shot" (no pun intended) visit. The presence of a police officer in the school was usually rare and limited. Fortunately that has changed, and now most modern police departments have at least several officers working in a school environment. A police officer's presence is now common. Because of that, we have the ability and training to go far beyond a limited police visit. It does not take long, however, for an officer to realize that skills learned in the police academy--firearms, use of force, handcuffing--do not help very much in most classrooms. (Some classroom teachers may disagree!) The essential skills are communication and relating your message to the students. What better way to relate important messages such as drug abuse prevention, gang prevention, and crime prevention, than through an experience! Since I began attending TEAM, I have been including experiential activities into many environments. I often use activities and games learned from presenters such as Karl Rohnke and Jim Grout in peer mediation training. Snowflake and Snowflurry programs, and on outdoor education trips with local schools. These experiences are remembered by students well into high school, if not the rest of their lives. Being able to relate important prevention messages while changing negative attitudes both apply to the Peace Officer's goal. There is, however, an even bigger bonus: young people began to associate a police officer with something positive. Police professionals constantly battle the negative images which are often portrayed. Yet when I see students who shared an experiential activity with me--even years later--they associate me and my profession with a positive police experience. They often ask about my hobbies, my latest travels, or even my dog. The opposite of this phenomenon is especially evident when I go into a school where I have only met some of the students. Young people who have not yet had a positive police experience inevitably ask if I can shoot them, handcuff them, or arrest them. POLICING WITHOUT THE COMMUNITY ISN'T REALLY POLICING. There are also longer reaching affects. The police profession is information dependent. When we have good information about a crime, we are very successful. When we don't have much information, we are not very successful. It's east to see, then, that if people don't trust the police they are less likely to report information about a crime, whether they are victims or witnesses. When someone can relate a positive experience with the police, they are better equipped to work with them. Some people might call this importance of community relations "community policing". Whatever you name it, the trust of the people--no matter what their ages--is essential to our success as peace officers. NOW WHAT? Can experiential/adventure learning be used in other areas of policing? Absolutely! This is not limited to educational environments. Words like teamwork, trust, and communication can mean the difference between life and death to a police officer. SWAT teams, undercover units, and other high risk teams center on the ability to trust, communicate and work as a team. Bloomingdale Police Commander Tim Georgen uses experiential activities in his daily roll calls to better prepare his patrol officers for their duty. This idea has become so popular, he has been teaching High Impact Roll Call Training to other police department supervisors and officers. Whatever your roll in policing, the positive police experience has tremendous influence. We can even hypothesize that as the frequency of positive police contacts increase, the more likely negative police contacts will decrease. Even one negative police experience has long-lasting implications for our professions. A positive experience also has long-lasting implications for our profession. People who have a positive police experience share that with others. In fact, one could say it creates a ripple effect. Kevin can be contacted at the Naperville Police Department, 630-305-5860, or at <oconnell@naperville.il.us>. |