Friday June 5, 2020   |   View in browser

Weekly Deployment Meeting Highlights

Every week, Linda Hansen attends the Evanston Police Department’s Deployment Meetings, takes notes on the topics discussed and writes about other police-related matters of interest to the people who work and live in Evanston.

Divine Intervention:  EPD's Clergy Team

Let's all take a deep breath

I know I don’t need to remind any of us of the one-two punch we’ve experienced in the past weeks and months. Still, just when some of the restrictions related to the COVID-19 were being lifted here in Illinois, the inconceivable, caught-on camera details of a death in Minneapolis unleashed decades of pent-up frustration and anger. Looting in Evanston? Similarly unfathomable. But it happened.

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Click to Enlarge

We will continue to publish This Week’s Crime map, but without commentary. If there are topics of interest to you, please send them our way.

So, while we’re waiting for a time in the unforeseeable future when we can head back into the Squad Room on Wednesday afternoons for a recap of the week’s crime and a forecast of the week ahead, I continued, with the help of Commander Garner, to search for new and uplifting topics. Thinking (actually knowing) that angst seems to be a global experience right now, we decided that this might be a good time to address the spiritual guidance offered by the EPD’s Clergy Team.

About the Clergy Team

The Clergy Team exists to offer comfort and support -  first, to members of the Evanston Police Department and second, to citizens like us.

The program has been in place since 1986, when Rabbi Dov Klein (still active) and the late Reverend John Norwood, pastor at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, saw the benefit of an all-volunteer, multi-faith organization to minister to the needs of cops and the community. They were Evanston’s first Police Chaplains. Officer Frank Kaminski, not yet the Chief back then, was the first Clergy Team Liaison.

Evanston Police Department Chaplain - Clergy Team

It’s a well-known fact that cops’ daily exposure to trauma results in higher rates of substance abuse, depression, divorce and PTSD. (Imagine, for a moment, what work life is like when almost all of your interactions are negative.) Suicide rates for police officers are 54% higher than they are for civilians, fueled by the fact that cops have immediate access to their service revolvers. What I discovered is that just having a member of the clergy team at roll calls, EPD headquarters, on ride-alongs and community events is, what Rabbi Klein calls a “ministry of presence”. It helps.

That presence is evident to the public at community events, especially Police Appreciation Day which is sponsored by the Clergy Team. This year, it happened, virtually of course, on May 22. (You can see the video here.) 

Police Chaplains (who work 24/7/365 on a rotating schedule) are often called out by Victim Services when there’s an unexpected death, a domestic dispute or a victim of a violent crime who needs help. During these crises, the Chaplain is there to support the officers, the social workers and offer one-on-one spiritual guidance, if requested, to citizens. More often, what’s valued is a calming voice, a compassionate mien, or a hand on a trembling shoulder.

Here are other tasks they perform: Serve as members of the Crisis Response Team, liaise with other clergy in the community, visit sick and injured officers and departmental personnel in home and hospital, teach police officers in areas such as stress management, ethics, family life, and pre-retirement, answer religious questions and serve on review boards, award boards, and other committees. It is … a lot.

How Members are Selected

The EPD’s Clergy Team has two tiers. The first tier is comprised of those who have expressed interest in working with the police department. They are trained by current members of the Clergy Team and attend the Citizen Police Academy. When there’s a vacancy to fill, Chief Cook selects Chaplains from this group. And yes, they carry badges.

The second tier includes clergy members throughout Evanston who have expressed an interest in supporting the Team without joining it. (Note: Police Chaplains – who are volunteers – spend an average of 10 hours per week fulfilling their responsibilities. This is not light duty.)

The current members of the Evanston Police Department Clergy Team are:

• Pastor Phillp Bentley
• Reverend Steve Durham
• Reverend Evangeline Featherson
• Reverend Garry Fraser
• Elder Rodney Greene
• Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein
• Father Robert H. Oldershaw
• Pastor Joey Rodger
• Reverend Eliezer M. Tendero

Hope for Us All

It occurred to me that, whether we are people of faith or not, we all need a few words of reflection, solace and gratitude. And who better to ask than members of our Clergy Team? Here’s what some of them had to share:

On Being an EPD Chaplain: “Like all religious traditions, mine values peace.  We all yearn to live in peace, not just without fear, but with trust and compassion given and received by those who share our time and space.

Here in Evanston, the diverse men and women of our police department help make this possible as they watch over us, reach out to us, and occasionally remind us when we go astray that some behaviors are not OK and must not happen.

As I often remind them, the work they do is a part of God’s peace work in the world. It’s hard work in the best of times, even harder in these times of pandemic and civic turmoil. Hard for officers, for staff, and for their families. Every day they show up to keep us safe, they can’t be sure they will be safe themselves. I thank God for them, pray for them, and care for them and for their families.

Ours is a work of prayer and presence, not preaching and persuasion.  It is a privilege and an honor.” Joey Rodger

“Wild Bill was a parishioner and dear friend of mine in rural Virginia. One day, Wild Bill gave me a greasy paper sack full of Civil War musket balls and bullets. ‘I just followed behind a plow and these turned up,’ he said. ‘You never know what’s going to turn up.’ 

God is the One who plows in that metaphor, and our difficult and challenging times are the evidence of the plowing that God is doing in our midst. Where do I find hope? You never know what God is going to turn up next! But like my Civil War material, it will be exquisite, and valuable, and rare.” Reverend Steve Durham

Psalms 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

“If we were logical beings only, the future would look bleak indeed. But when we choose hope, all things are possible.

Remember that, only in the darkness can we see the stars. Hope makes the present problems less difficult to bear. Hope is being able to see that there is light in spite of the darkness and that God is in our midst.

Hope will give us the strength, and faith will help us overcome.” Reverend Evangeline Featherson

“I was horrified, incensed and in pain when I saw the senseless and meaningless murder of George Floyd. No one ever deserves to be treated that way let alone by an individual who is appointed to protect all of us in society. Institutional racism, bigotry and injustice have existed for too long. There is no room for hatred, bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia.

Each person’s life has infinite value. We have a responsibility to ‘love your fellow as yourself’. We must remember that we are one community made up of different individuals. But we are all one. The pain is great. The anger is there. The rage has arrived. Now we must commit ourselves to be part of the solution. To learn to trust, communicate, educate, care, and love each other. Only this way will we be able to fix this brokenness once and for all. Let us all continue to pray for healing during these challenging times.” Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein

Deuteronomy 3:28 But charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him: for he shall go over before this people, and he shall cause them to inherit the land which thou shalt see.

“With these words, I encourage our community to trust in themselves and the police officers who serve and protect us.” Elder Rodney Greene

I joined the Clergy Team when Deputy Chief Frank Kaminski launched the chaplain program. I’ve been a police chaplain since then.

I realize this is a stressful time for the EPD between COVID-19 and the present protests for justice and racial reconciliation.

There is a passage in the Book of Exodus. Moses bows down before the Lord and pleads: ‘If we find favor with you, please walk in our company.” I think that’s a good prayer for our officers who are working 12 hour days to ‘serve and protect.’ May God bless them.” Father Robert Oldershaw

If you are in need of an Evanston Police Chaplain, please call 847-866-5000.

If you are a member of the clergy here in Evanston and are interested in joining the EPD Clergy Team, please call the Evanston Police Department at 847-866-5005.

EPD Clergy Team Thank You Video

Gun Buyback Program

The Ongoing Gun Buyback Program allows Evanston residents to turn in an operational firearm to police at any time in exchange for $100. Residents can utilize this service by calling 311 or the Evanston Police Department non-emergency line at 847-866-5000. A police officer will pick up the unwanted firearm at the resident's address and present the resident with a voucher that can be exchanged for $100 at the City Collector’s Office located in the Morton Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave.

Firearms should not be brought to the police department, unless prior approval has been granted from a supervisor at the police department. An officer will call the resident after a request is made for the officer to come to a person's residence and retrieve the firearm.

What would you like to know about what the Evanston Police Department is doing to fight crime? Let us know if you have specific questions or concerns about issues in your neighborhood. Submissions are always welcome at police@cityofevanston.org or by calling the community strategies bureau at 847-866-5019.  

Subscribe to Evanston’s Daily Crime Report by email or view the Monthly Crime Statistics that are reported on a yearly basis to the FBI.

If you would like to learn more about the Evanston Police Department, take an active role in community-oriented policing, and join the ranks of over 900 graduates since 1995, please visit the Citizen Police Academy webpage.  

There is no cost to anyone who lives or works in Evanston. Getting to know your police force is essential in reducing crime, building trust in the community and serving the needs of the community.

The weekly deployment report is an informational bulletin prepared by a community member that keeps citizens informed about what police do on a weekly basis. Information contained in this report is not to be considered as a media/press release. Any information considered by a media source from this bulletin needs to be verified by an official from the department. This can be done by contacting the media line at 847-866-5026.