By Heather Ruenz
Community Editor
Part of Brian Robinson’s job, he said, is to keep the residents at Fairhaven engaged and in tune with the local community and he recently found a way to take that engagement to a new level, by teaming up with the Whitewater Police Department.
“Ever since I started my job and reached out to Chief (Lisa) Otterbacher, she and the staff have been a pleasure to work with and extremely accommodating to Fairhaven,” Robinson, Leisure Services Director at Fairhaven, said.
About a year ago, Robinson said he and Officer Bill Oliver began talking about setting up a citizen’s police academy for seniors at Fairhaven. Once the sessions began – in June – the attendance is testament to the interest level by those at Fairhaven.
“On average we had around 25 residents attend each presentation with topics including: drugs, fraud, the K-9 unit and Officer Boomer, being an extra set of eyes and ending with a show-and-tell of police equipment,” Robinson said.
For those that attended all three of the presentations at Fairhaven, they were invited for a tour of the Police Department and received a certificate of completion of the Whitewater Senior Citizens Police Academy.
The sessions were as follows:
- June 1 – Detectives Lindsey and Schleis presented a program on drugs and fraud;
- June 8 – Officer Matteson gave a presentation on the city’s K-9 unit and brought K-9 Officer Boomer along. Matteson also discussed being a good witness;
- June 15 – Officer Hintz displayed and gave a demonstration on various police equipment used by officers today.
On June 21, Capt. Dan Meyer provided a tour of the PD and presented certificates to those that attended all of the sessions.
“My role was simply to provide a tour of the department and present the certificates of course completion. It was great meeting all of the participants. They had a lot of great questions during the tour,” Meyer said.
Fairhaven residents also gave positive feedback on the academy.
Don Ellerman said he enjoyed the “excellent presentations, especially Boomer.” Ellerman said he didn’t realize how a dog like Boomer is trained and the amount of continuous training that takes place within the department.
Gloria Weigandt said the experience “made me realize how much more demanding and complex and dangerous law enforcement is today than it formerly was.”
Gladys Ellerman said the academy caused her to gain more respect for what the officers do on the job. The most interesting thing she learned was “all the gear the officers have to wear when on duty. Also, how the drug dog is trained.”
Betty Schoonover said by following the news, people have a good idea of what the job of police officers consists of, but she noted it’s “very dangerous and yet must be rewarding,” adding that it must be extra challenging in a college town with the increase in drug problems.
Schoonover said her knowledge of an officer’s equipment was the nightstick, gun and handcuffs but the academy made her aware of the body cameras and tasers – both of which she said was interesting to learn about.
“I was shocked at the increase in the variety of drugs they have to keep up with,” Schoonover said. “I am impressed that they have taken the time to hold this academy series for residents at Fairhaven.”
