Kids Practice Police Work at St. Charles COPS Camp

Ben Barton, 12, tried to navigate a golf cart through the parking lot of the St. Charles Soccer Complex last week under the watchful eyes of St. Charles Parks and Recreation Rangers.

Ben and the other campers attending the first-ever St. Charles COPS Camp were supposed to negotiate the track to get a feel for driving a golf cart.

Then they were going to don special goggles that simulate the vision of someone who is drunk and repeat the course.

It was all designed to give kids a taste of what happens when you drink and drive.

Ben wasn't wearing the goggles yet when his cart jumped the curb and toppled into a ditch. He said he thought he might have been going too fast. “I guess I was too excited,” he said, laughing.

“Do you think that could happen if you had been drinking and driving?” Sgt. Paul Jokerst, a ranger with the parks department, asked.

“Even worse,” Ben replied.

The weeklong camp for kids was a joint effort between the Ranger Division and the St. Charles City Police and Fire Departments. Jokerst developed the camp to teach kids the importance of teamwork, promote leadership and build relationships between the youngsters and law enforcement officers.

The camp's name, COPS, stands for challenge, overcome, persevere, succeed—values the leaders hoped to impart all week long.

The kids lifted fingerprints, made DNA kits, experienced a water rescue at and learned how the special response team (similar to a tactical or SWAT team) operates. They also saw a K-9 demonstration with Duke, a tracking and search dog, and watched firemen “rappel off their fire apparatus as they would if they were going off a cliff,” Jokerst said.

In CSI-fashion, the kids also got play forensic sleuths and investigate four crime scenes—a burglary, a homicide, a recovered stolen auto and an arson, where the fire department burned living room furniture to set a realistic scene. Camp organizers left bits of evidence at each scene tying them together. 

Jokerst was pleased that the kids picked up on the clues. “They solved the crime,” he said.

One afternoon, the kids watched as police officers and firefighters responded to a fake drunk driving accident complete with damaged vehicles and a helicopters.

Chief Ranger Todd Kassabaum said officials are happy with reactions to the camp and will probably continue it next year.  

“The kids, I think, are having a good time,” he said. “They get to do something they don’t typically get to do. It’s not the old sit-in-a-police-car or look at it or sit in a fire truck. They’re getting hands-on experience, and then we’re throwing in some fun stuff with it.”