CHESTERTON – “I thought I had everything under control, and obviously I didn't, because at one point he turned the gun towards me… I had to shoot him,” recalled Father Jon Plavcan.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a real-life encounter for the St. Patrick Catholic Community pastor, but a simulation training scenario he was engaged in as part of the Chesterton Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy.
Father Plavcan and Susan Hadenfelt, St. Patrick School principal, were selected with ten other Chesterton community members to take part in the department’s first ever 6-week academy which ran from October through November this past year.
Participants were able to get a behind-the-scenes look at the town’s police department operations through classroom lectures and hands-on activities. Attendees met Zeke the K9 and focused on topics including the drone system and grid work, emergency vehicle operations, investigations, crime scene, patrol operations, SWAT, fingerprinting, and more. They also engaged in real life scenarios at a training facility.
Although participants received a certificate at the end of the course, they were not trained to act as law enforcement officers.
Father Plavcan recalled somebody had commented that a priest shouldn't be doing this training.
“You know, I'm not going to be a Jesse James. This by no means makes us police officers, but I think it makes us more vigilant and a little bit more understanding and appreciative,” he remarked. “We had the lecture part of classes, but then we got the experience of what a police officer goes through on a daily basis.”
Father Plavcan explained some of the training scenarios included real-life events, including the simulation he experienced. What started out as a routine traffic stop quickly escalated into the driver threatening suicide.
“Immediately I had to go into a whole different scenario. Everything changed,” Father Plavcan said. “He said he had just killed his family and that he was going to kill himself.”
Then the scenario again quickly changed as the suspect threatened Father Plavcan, who had only a split second to react when the suspect turned the gun towards him.
“It was still the realization that once I entered into a scenario, that this is serious business,” he explained. “It's not just some dummies that you have to shoot. It is a scenario that actually is life and death for the officer, and also for the other individual.”
Father Plavcan and Hadenfelt noted compassion and empathy are a big part of an officer’s duties including taking time to get a better understanding of what the person may be going through.
“It's not always easy to make those judgments,” Father Plavcan said. “You really have to have a human heart.”
“We were able to walk in their shoes,” Hadenfelt said. “It gives you a good perspective of pretty much their job without actually doing the job. It really made you respect and appreciate what they do daily.”
Father Plavcan added, “Unfortunately, in our world, there is that disrespect for officers. Most of the police officers are there to help and to protect the community. They're part of the community and we're part of the community.”
He went on to share how the academy helped build a relationship with the police department.
“We got to know some of the police officers in a different way,” he said. “Whether they're male or female, they go home to a family and then come back to work and offer themselves for the service and protection of the community. They also got to know us in a different way, that they don't see me as the priest at St. Patrick's, but that I'm also an individual.”
The school reaped the fruits of that relationship as well as the department now provides a school resource officer.
“I'm most familiar with Officer Mike, who comes during lunchtime and socializes with the students so that he creates that relationship with them, that police officers are not someone who are to be feared, but they are your friend and they'll help you,” Father Plavcan said.
Hadenfelt has become more alert to her surroundings and pays a little closer attention to things since going through the academy. She mentioned that with recent school incidents across the nation, security changes need to be made around the school.
“It really brought everything to light,” she said. “We wanted to do things in steps and didn’t want to do so much that we caused panic. We needed to make it subtle, but yet evident. Whether it's here at church or in the school, just to have that extra security and that extra awareness.”
The academy reaffirmed one thing for Hadenfelt in her career choice. She noted, “We all have different roles in life, and it was very clear that I belong in a school and a classroom and not as a police officer.”
Caption: Father Jon Plavcan, pastor of St. Patrick Catholic Community, and Susan Hadenfelt, St. Patrick School principal, pose together with Father Plavcan’s certificate he received after the pair completed Chesterton Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy. (Deacon Bob Wellinski photo)
