Behind The Badge: Week 6

It's a rare moment when right before your eyes the resolute disposition of a veteran law enforcement officer yields to maternal sensibilities.

Johns Creek Police Sgt. Debbie Kalish’s eyes sparkled as brightly as her mirror-polished badge during last week’s Citizens Police Academy class as she doted on her grade school-age daughter’s successful completion of a recent department-sponsored self defense class designed specifically for kids her age.

“We teach the kids to act on basic instinct, fight and flight,” Sgt. Kalish said with passion in her voice and animated hand movements while she spoke. “Because there’s no way they can take on a full-grown adult. And while my daughter was fighting with one of the instructors you could see the sheer terror on her face. But then all of sudden she turned around and kicked the crap out of that guy. I was so proud!”

And with that moment behind them, cadets and instructors of the fall 2011 class rounded its penultimate turn with week six of nine in the rear view.  

Comprised of a cross-section of retirees, military veterans, a martial arts expert, and a former NASA engineer, among others, the diverse group of 21 adult cadets - in all nine women and 12 men - are rapidly approaching graduation day for the semiannual series now in its third consecutive year.

As JCPD’s community service coordinator, Sgt. Kalish’s responsibilities focus primarily on her liaison role between the general public and police operations. But she’s also tasked with implementing community-focused programs to head off crime and keep kids safe, including implementation of the nationally recognized radKids program her daughter completed earlier this year.

While the program is national in scope, local municipalities like Johns Creek offer a localized version of the five-class series to children ages 7 through 12 and fund it through corporate sponsorships and adult volunteer instructors.

Classes include instruction on home, school and vehicle safety; realistic defense against abduction; differentiating between good-bad-uncomfortable touch; and how to determine and recognize strangers, and tricks and physical defense against abduction like screaming for help while kicking and poking at an abductor’s eyes just enough to escape his grasp and make a run for it.  

Since its founding in 1998, radKIDS has trained more than 125,000 children across the United States to become empowered and learn how to replace fear, confusion and panic or dangerous situations with confidence, personal safety skills and self-esteem, according to JCPD’s course web page.

But Kalish also focuses the department's resources on community-outreach programs on business burglary crime prevention and patrols, like the free SHIELD course that trains business owners and employees on how to prevent and survive robberies and burglaries and better security procedures against check fraud and identity theft.

Those who successfully complete the course get a SHIELD logo decal for their front or back doors to help detour would-be burglars. There’s also an underage drinking diversion program JCPD has implemented with municipal court solicitors and judges to help teens who have perhaps made a one-time mistake take a mandated course to have their records expunged upon completion.

And PACT (Police And Community Together) is essentially a neighborhood watch program JCPD helps implement throughout the city.

But the pet project among many others offered for community support by JCPD community relations is the department’s physical and fiscal support of Special Olympics Georgia, part of JCPD's annual participation in the non-profit's Law Enforcement Torch Run, which raises money each year to serve more than 23,000 intellectually disabled children and adults across the state.

“If you ever want to see the best in humanity, the most pure goodness in people even though they’re facing tremendous mental and physical obstacles, than take a look at Special Olympics,” Sgt. Kalish insisted.

Last April JCPD sponsored a golf tournament and police ball that featured silent auction items donated by area businesses, making Johns Creek Police Department the top fundraising agency in 2010, raising almost $58,000.

Prior to Sgt. Kalish’s presentation, cadets heard from police operations manager Cheri Pickard, one of nine non-sworn civilian employees, about how her division keeps JCPD’s local and national accreditation in tact. With 20 years in law enforcement work - a dozen in accreditation work - Pickard explained how JCPD Chief Ed Densmore tapped her expertise to keep JCPD ahead of the curve for its then-newly formed 2008 police force.

She also maintains JCPD’s ongoing industry-standard CALEA -  Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies Inc.  - compliance with audit reporting, compliance to local, regional and national standards and overall training standards by JCPD officers and staff. Pickard also maintains JCPD’s state certification from the Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police.

“We were laying a foundation,” Pickard said of JCPD’s 2008 inception. “And it gave us an opportunity to be nothing less than excellent.