With the horror of Sept. 11, 2001 came a newfound appreciation for first responders in the United States.
The American public, stunned by the sight of heroic New York police and firefighters rushing into and up the twin towers as everyone else streamed out, showered first responders across the nation with affection and respect.
Fifteen years later, it’s hard for Harrisburg Police Chief James “Whipper” Johnson to recall those times. Much of that good feeling has evaporated in today’s climate, he believes.
“For a time it felt like we were held in higher esteem,” Johnson said. “Now, it’s come down, and it’s even lower than before.”
But despite an ebb and flow in public opinion, the fundamental way officers approach policing remains constant, chiefs say.
“Every (officer) I’ve come across does this job because he loves it,” said Eldorado Chief Shannon Deuel. “I tell my young guys we’re here to be a buffer between good people and bad people — we’re here to stop things that bring the community down.”
But if officers’ attitudes haven’t changed since 2001, some of their focus has. Terrorism is a vital national topic but police here are less geared toward radical Islamicists and more toward potential domestic terrorism — keeping a wary eye out for the next school shooter or homemade bomb maker, for example.
Several Harrisburg officers have gotten explosives recognition training, Johnson said. They won’t dismantle bombs, but are trained to recognize potential trouble signs — like someone hoarding urine or peroxide — that a less trained eye would miss.
Deuel and Johnson both are concerned with how well-armed the criminal class in America has become over the years, even here.
Guns have always been part of the culture of southern Illinois, Deuel acknowledges, but he’s troubled by how many young people today are armed.
Some are even as young as 13, and the shift has happened in the last two or three years.
“They feel they have to have some sort of weapon,” Deuel said. “They feel like it is the answer.”
For police, he added, “a gun is the last answer.” Each officer in Eldorado carries an M-4 rifle, but their greatest resource is conversation, the ability to diffuse a situation with talk.
In Harrisburg, Johnson agrees that the more communication skills an officer develops the better he will be at talking a tense situation down.
Policing, he added, is not just a job.
“It’s a career, it’s a lifestyle,” he said. “If what you want is a job with a paycheck, it’s not for you. You have to have that ‘X’ factor.”
If you are lucky enough to get onto a police force, you’ll have a camaraderie with your workmates unlike that in any other profession, Johnson says.
Policing methods and equipment may change, adds Deuel, but one thing never does.
“Every cop just wants to go home safe to his family every night,” he said.
