As long as the subject has come up, I gained employment with the Addison, Ill. Police Department in 1978 and attended PTI for the basic LEO class there. It was somewhat interesting going there because of the interaction with "normal" college students and at times university instructors. Occasionally there was some friction between the trainees and regular college students, but nothing serious. Overall I enjoyed the experience, but the drive to PTI was a pain in the butt. I forget the class coordinators name but he was an interesting sort. I think he was originally from Oakland, CA and he had a handlebar moustache. Quite a guy. They say you only recall the really good instructors in your life and the really bad ones, he was a good one. They allowed us to use of department issued sidearm, if we had one, for range training. I had been sworn in a week or so prior so I had one, a Model 19 S&W. It was okay and I shot it well, but it was a used gun that lived a hard life prior to me getting it, so I never bonded with that gun.
Just prior to being sworn in I was sent to a large uniform store in the City of Chicago for my initial uniform and equipment purchase. I recall walking into the place and being shocked at the number of coppers in there, mainly from the City. There were a few others from the area, but mostly Chicago. Oddly enough many were just there to shoot the bull and hangout, but I specifically remember one Chicago cop who had the nastiest looking sidearm and ammunition I had ever seen up to that point on his duty belt. The tops of the cartridges in his loop carrier were turning green and I thought WTH?? He saw me looking at his equipment and he looked at me and said, "Something wrong? You a cop?" I was totally embarrassed and said "Nope nothing wrong, but why are your cartridges green on the top and yes I was just hired by a department." He then opened up his leather jacket and said, "this is my REAL gun if I need it, it's a .44 Maggie and it does what I need it to." He had it in a shoulder holster with extra rounds on the carrier straps. One of his pals looked at me and said, "Listen rook, we all carry extra shooters and if you last long enough you will too." Thankfully the clerk behind the counter said "Can I help you" and got me out of that mess before I did something else stupid.
Anyway the seed was planted and as soon as I could I carried a supplemental weapon whenever possible. At first I carried small frame S&W revolvers, but when I left Illinois and started working for the Wisconsin State Patrol I switched to a PPK which served me well for many years. Fortunately for me when I started on the Patrol I was issued a brand new Model 66 4" revolver and I bonded with that gun. We could only carry 158 grain semi-jacketed soft points as hollow points were frowned on by our admin at the time. All our leather gear was made by Dehners in Omaha and was polished plain black, but not Clarino.
I started attending some of the Street Survival seminars in the early 80's ( 1st one was in Morton Grove, IL )and they were quite interesting and I learned a lot. What I really learned was my agency fell woefully short in any type of tactical, or combat training. It was more about being polite and looking like a professional trooper should. Believe it or not, part of our training was how to iron 5 creases into your duty shirt!! No sewn in creases for us by golly! Around 1984 things started to change dramatically for us though, as we had Academy staff finally in place that understood what we needed for better training and we got it. Many of the senior troopers weren't at all ready for intense tactical training and it showed. I can honestly say I was embarrassed for some of them and how they reacted when placed in high stress situations. A few actually resigned/retired and went into other occupations, but it was for the best.
My first duty assignment out of the Academy was to the southeast region and I occasionally ran into some troops from Illinois State Police. Most were from District 15 and I would go to one of the Tollway Maintenance buildings to shoot the bull with them, or they would come up and meet me at the Kenosha Scale. One guy in particular was a real card because he used to love to tease me about how much more money they made than me. He would make sure to show me their projected pay increase sheets and then needle me about how much I was making versus him. The last sheet I ever saw reflected that an ISP recruit was making more than I was with 10 years on the job. I never bothered to look at the ISP pay sheets again. It was too deflating to my ego! Several years after I retired I ended up as a police motorcycle instructor working for NUCPS and I spent several weeks at the Pawnee, IL ISP driving track and that's where I first heard the term "Trooper Lane". It's an unwritten rule in Illinois that lane #1 of any multi-lane roadway is reserved for troopers so you better stay out of it except to pass a slower vehicle. I got a lot of mileage out of that one over many years LOL! I will add that the troopers we trained in that ISP only motorcycle operation class were some of the most dedicated and hardest working people I have ever run across. They not only put up with a tornado that came thru the area, but the cold and snow conditions at times were incredible. On a few days they actually had to salt the track and drive their cruisers on it to break up the snow and ice for us to use the motorcycles. Getting warm was on everyone's mind as soon as you stepped outside. I was teased a lot being from Wisconsin and that I should be used to cold weather. Great bunch of people and I and my partner were very proud of them. In 23 years of training LEO's how to operate a police motorcycle, those back to back classes in Pawnee had the worst weather conditions I ever experienced!
Rick H.
