- [Voiceover] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home & Crematory have been serving Quad City families and veterans since 1889.

Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Homes are located in Rock Island, Milan and Reynolds.

And are proud supporters of WQPT.

- [Voiceover] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are, and always will be, our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- [Voiceover] Alternatives is a proud supporter of WQPT, and has been serving our community for 40 years.

Alternatives provides professional guidance to maintain independence and quality of life for older adults and adults with disabilities.

- A Quad City Police Chief is taking on a new role in policing.

And a group dedicated to protecting every veteran gets new leadership, in "The Cities".

(upbeat music) Police work has never before been under such a microscope, whether it's a police camera, or the camera on your phone, arrests are being documented like never before.

And police interactions with the public have never been scrutinized to this extent.

It is under this backdrop where Moline Police Chief, Darren Gault, has taken on a new role as the Vice President of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

A first for the Quad City area for this statewide organization.

Chief Gault talked to us about his new role, and the role of all officers in policing our community.

- I certainly wanted to get involved to give Northwest and Central Illinois a voice at the Chief's Association.

Largely that organization is represented out of Chicago, or some of the major metropolitan areas.

And I think it's important that our counties, as well as our local area, are represented in the statewide conversations.

- It is kind of interesting that you are among the first, in a long time, to be a part of the Association, and have representation for our area.

How do you think that's gonna help this area?

- Well, I think it gives me access to a statewide platform, an additional level of networking.

I've spent last week with the outgoing President, Mitch Davis.

And then of course, the incoming President, Lou Jogmen.

And so becoming very good friends with them and close with them, as well as learning a little bit more about the issue statewide.

But also giving, you know, some representation for our area, that some of these issues that are being discussed, some of the arguments that are being held, really are not applicable to our area.

Or we have different priorities, or we're doing things a little bit different, maybe we're ahead of the curve in some areas.

And so some of our priorities are a little bit different.

And so I wanna give our area and our counties, our chiefs, an opportunity to be heard.

- See, and I was thinking the exact same thing, that this area is so much different than so many other parts of the state.

I mean, obviously we're not Chicago, and we're not Central Illinois, and Southern Illinois is a completely different animal as well.

What do you see that you're doing right here that people can emulate elsewhere in the state?

- Yeah, I think that, you know, we're ahead of the curve in a lot of these conversations, the Moline Police Department, and I know my fellow Chiefs in the Quad Cities, we meet weekly, are already well ahead of some of the training mandates.

Some of the things that have been talked about and highly publicized in the media.

The other issue is body cameras.

You know, our area, Moline Police Department in particular, has had body cameras since 2017.

Rock Island Police Department's on their third generation of body cameras.

And so while some of those conversations are going on statewide, agencies like the Illinois State Police, for example, who don't have them implemented yet, that was a big concern for some of those agencies.

So, you know, we're already ahead of that, and we're ready to move on to the next topic.

Now, funding might be an issue.

You know, our taxpayers are paying a lot of money for this equipment.

So we are looking for some additional funding, but we already have them in place.

So the grants that are coming out to implement body cameras aren't as important to us.

as ongoing funding for storage, for example.

- Well, and I think that's really interesting, because that is one of the areas that the new generation of policing has to handle, and that's the body cameras.

And I wanna talk about so many of the other topics, but let's talk about the cameras for instance.

Because yes, as you said, each of the Quad City agencies seem to be embracing the use of these cameras.

Why is it so important, do you think, for police?

Because I know that on the other side of the coin, that they're invaluable to find out what police are doing.

I would think, for police, it's invaluable to prove the reasons why they're doing what they're doing.

- Yeah, I think video technology has expanded so rapidly that it's become part of our daily lives.

I saw an interesting, I think it was a meme or something, I really stop and think about what your technology was like, things that you were carrying in your pockets, just 10 or 15 years ago.

I think we were still on pagers, somewhere in 10 or 15 years ago.

Now, you know, all these different... You would carry a camera, a video camera, a cell phone, you know, a PDA.

Now they're all in one device; technology is everywhere.

And the same reasons that the public uses it in their daily lives, it's the same reason that we're using it in our daily lives.

And it is evidence, documentation, or convenience, but it does come at a cost.

I mean, there's a huge manpower burden to manage the video, as well as technology storage, and it's expensive.

And so, you know, I think everyone is so used to technology that it's expected now.

- I think it is interesting also that you did allude to some of the moves that the Illinois State Legislature did last year, in regards to policing, cash bonds, a bunch of different areas when it comes to the justice system.

And now you're seeing Democrats almost enacting new laws that are more, let's say, officer friendly.

Let's talk about what happened last year, and then add, please, to what's going on this year.

How difficult has it been to comply with these new mandates?

- Well, I think the biggest concern for me really is the amount of time that we're dedicating to some training, which I am fully supportive.

It is certainly impacting our manpower, staffing, and it is impacting our budgets.

And so obviously, to give more officers training, takes them off the street to patrol, or to complete something that's needed to be done.

And I understand that that, that's a good thing, it's things that we need to work out logistically, but it's causing our overtime budgets to be inflated.

It's causing our higher back, trying to put people in on overtime to get people to the training, because we've continued to add the training mandates.

The other thing that concerns me is that we've seen a large number of officers leave, that's been nationwide.

With that experience is leaving knowledge that isn't a mandate.

So for a example, a lot of our tactical team negotiators are our SWAT team members, hostage negotiators.

That's not a mandate, but to replace those people, we still have to provide training.

So, you know, our officers are off the street about half of the time now, with benefit time, or administrative, or training time.

And so we need to be watchful of that.

We're trying to encourage the legislators to look at, instead of continuing to add, as to maybe get rid of some of the old training that maybe needs to be updated, and some of those mandates changed.

I don't think any of us are opposed to the training idea, but it is costly.

And again, that's very difficult for cities on different budgets that may not have the same revenue sources that Moline does.

And so these are the things that we need to continue to have conversations about.

- Well, and, you know, first responders are no different than any other part of society, when it comes to recruiting workers, keeping them, and getting good workers.

How difficult is it right now for departments like Moline, or even smaller than Moline, to find new recruits, to get new officers on the street?

- Yeah, I think... Well, one of the biggest things that everybody's probably seen nationwide is the departures.

The Illinois Association Chiefs of Police did a survey of a little over half their members, about 239 law enforcement agencies in Illinois.

And they found that about 29% increase in resignations and retirements over previous years.

I can tell you, Moline Police Department was up 129% over the 10-year average.

We lost 15 people in 2021 to retirement.

Our 10-year average is 5, so it's been difficult.

We're constantly testing, I know that if your viewers got on right now, you'd see Rock Island, East Moline, I think the Sheriff's Department's getting ready to recruit, the Illinois State Police is recruiting.

If you wanna get into law enforcement, now's a good time.

About 60% of agencies statewide are not fully staffed.

The other issue that we're seeing is that the applications have plummeted.

Applications are way down, about 40% to 70% nationwide.

Moline is down 68% at the end of 2022, over our previous applications.

So it is a big concern.

- Well, and this is also coming at a time when you want to have a more diverse police force.

So you're looking for women, and you're looking for minorities, and that must be even more difficult than before.

But in some ways, I mean, you're seeing some women and minorities that are applying, that's gotta make you feel really good as well.

- Yeah, we have some really great people that have joined our organization, in the time that I've been here.

I've been the Police Chief just coming up on three years, I've hired 29 people into the Moline Police Department.

Many of them are great people that are doing great work.

As you know, it's been pretty public in our Facebook page or in the media, we do have a large number of female officers.

We have a variety of different diversities.

And so it is exciting to see those people get into the field.

The problem that we're having now is that some of those areas of recruitment, in some diverse categories, are way down.

And we're needing the community's assistance to try to find those people and call them to public service.

- Well, right now the era of policing has never been any stranger, any different.

I mean, people are keeping a closer eye on what police do, and the trust level, in so many aspects of society, including law enforcement in the public's eye, has fallen for large groups of people.

Has that been a difficult proposition, as far as getting people into law enforcement?

Because why bother with this, or to keep and retain the employees that you have, that are just saying, "Okay, I'm done with this."

- Well, certainly it has been a problem for retention.

We saw in the late 1990s, President Clinton had a big push to increase law enforcement with some funding, while those people came up on, you know, 25 or 30 years.

And when this narrative kind of bubbled up, and it was just difficult, people decided that they would retire and leave.

So it was kind of a perfect storm.

You know, I certainly understand the comment, or that, you know, this is a tough era in policing.

But really, if you look back at the history of policing, it's been divided up into, you know, four or five eras.

You know, and in certainly the 1800s, and then even again, in the 1960s, were different times of eras.

You know, in the last say 20 years, we've been in a Homeland Security era, where the focus has largely been on terrorism, domestic preparedness.

This is a new era, and I think we'll adjust.

You know, policing in the 1800s was largely controlled by politicians, it was very... turned out to end up the large corruption era.

And I tell my new officers, "Listen, police officers in the 1800s were in charge of turning on the gas lamps in the downtown areas, and turning them off in the mornings.

And we don't ask police officers to do that anymore."

The career, the profession has changed, and we will change with the times.

- You're also coming out of a pandemic too.

And as a first responder, I mean, your officers were facing some very difficult times.

I mean, they had to worry about their health, on top of everything else that an officer has to worry about each day when they go on a call.

How has the pandemic, you think, changed policing, or changed your department?

- You know, Jim, it was difficult.

I think largely because policing, we couldn't do from home.

There weren't any officers that I could have do these Zooms, or remote work in, for policing.

They all came in every day, and either patrol the streets, or investigate crimes.

Served our citizens, just like all of the area Police Departments across the Quad Cities and this great nation.

I'm certainly proud of law enforcement and their response, they were here for the community.

It was tough though, and I think what people oftentimes forget about public servants, police, fire, and even our nurses and doctors, is they're human beings in a profession.

And, you know, we all had battling our own health challenges, making sure that we were safe, maybe our families were ill. And, you know, luckily the Moline Police Department did well, but I do know that, you know, some agencies struggled with that, or even had family members that were greatly stricken by it.

And that's hard for people, that's stressful for them, and it's a challenge.

And, you know, they came in and did the job, and did it really well, and I'm proud of that.

I'm proud of their resilience.

And I think we should, you know, certainly thank our public servants, for continuing to help us all through this.

I think it's also ironic, I was just notified about six months ago, that the William Police Department will be inscribing an officer on the National Law Enforcement Memorial next week in Washington, DC.

Roy Leavestead, who died in the 1912 pandemic, serving as a police officer for Moline.

And so, you know, these are things that we face, dangers, you know, in different types of categories.

And certainly public servants are not immune to those dangers.

- Moline Police Chief, Darren Gault, who is now also the Vice President of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

We're starting to see the flowers in bloom, the sun shining brightly, and the temperature's getting out of the cellars of early spring.

It is May, and Laura Adams has some great ideas for all of us who are ready to stretch our legs and go Out & About.

- [Laura] This is Out & About from May 20th to 26th.

Get ready for the First Annual Mississippi Valley Fair Rib Fest coming to the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds from May 26th to the 30th.

And it's time for St. Ambrose University's Wine Tasting.

So get your tickets and sip your way through a spectacular assortment of 150 wines on May 21st.

The Davenport Public Library host a virtual seminar on Healthy Eating on a Budget on May 26th at 6:30.

There's a variety of music available, Adrianne Hall's Tribute to Carol King at Rhythm City Casino on the 20th.

Live music in Clinton on May 22nd, featuring Kris Karr at the Wide River Winery.

Sip, sample, and shop your way through historic downtown Le Claire at Shops with Hops at Green Tree Brewery May 21st.

The Bucktown Revue features Quarter Moon, Tin Snips, and Miracle Bluegrass Band on May 20th.

Pocket Change performs at Rhythm City Casino on the 21st.

And Beatles vs. Stones, two of the great bands of all time face off in a high energy, adrenaline pumping, musical showdown at Bally's on the 21st at 7:00.

On stage, step into the enchanted world of Broadway's modern classic, Disney's "Beauty and the Beast", at Circa '21.

And be in the audience when GIT Improv returns to The Black Box Theatre May 20th, with more improv at The Spotlight Theater on May 21st, with Stolen Set Improv.

For more information, visit wqpt.org - Thank you, Laura.

It was just six years ago when UnityPoint Health Trinity decided to get more active in its efforts to make sure military and veterans are not neglected in our community.

It created the Quad Cities's Community Veterans Engagement Board to help coordinate efforts to support veterans and their families, to offer a safety net of sorts.

It now has some new board members, including Sherri Behr DeVrieze, who, along with Shane Kern, now serve as Co-chair of this organization.

Well, Sherri, the Quad Cities's Community Veterans Engagement Board, that's a mouthful, in the first place.

And a lot of people may not have heard about it.

It's been around for about six years, what are you trying to do especially?

- Well, our mission is to bring people together so we can help solve some of the issues that are faced by our veterans.

Our main goal is to make sure that no veteran in the Quad City falls through the cracks.

And we have a pretty extensive strategic plan, that includes resource development, engagement, and education, and awareness training for mental health, healthcare providers.

In fact, we just did a military culture training today, this morning, it was a 4.5-hour program, where we had 90 healthcare and mental health providers present in the room.

And they listened to Dr. John Mundt, who is a licensed clinical psychologist from Chicago, who talked about the impact of deployment, and war zone experiences, transition from military service to civilian life.

And how to communicate with veterans when they come across them in their practices, so that they can better serve them and provide better outcomes.

- Well, let's be honest, I mean, you think back to World War II, the men and women that came back basically started their lives all over without any help.

And then you look at Vietnam, which was such a divisive war, that soldiers would come back, and they'd be actually hated, you know, just for participating in a war that they were a part of.

It's almost like the pendulum has swung the other side, in that these safety nets are now not only being provided, but some of these veterans who, in other eras, would've just denied they had a problem, now have the help if they reach out.

- It's true, the Vietnam veterans were not treated very well when they came home, and that has changed.

And a lot of that is because of them, and they don't want that to happen to the veterans that come home today.

So we do have collaboration with veterans from that era, and there are more services available now that weren't available then.

And I think that more people are reaching out now, and the VA is doing, you know, all they can to provide the services that veterans from all eras need.

- But you say, you know, that you want to be this safety net.

And we do know, I mean, you point out the VA, you talk about a lot of these different service organizations.

What need do you think is not being met?

- Well, one of the things that we found is in civilian healthcare, and mental health services, that they didn't necessarily know that their patient was a veteran, and they were... will only know that if they asked that question, "Are you former military, or did you serve?"

And then that can open up the conversation, to maybe where they served, and when they served.

And that provides some background information to that healthcare provider, about maybe what they went through when they were deployed.

- Well, and that'll make a whole different aspect to treating them both physically and mentally.

So that that's definitely a plus.

Tell me the other point is that you've got veterans now that are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and all points of the globe these days.

Do they have needs that are different than what we've seen in past generations?

- Well, they have had different experiences.

Some of it is the same, but they've had a lot of different experiences.

Like I said, there are more services available to them now, they were more connected while they were serving, they had cell phones, they had internet; that wasn't possible before.

They're able to, not only connect with their family back home, but also learn about all the problems that are going on at home, which is... can be challenging for them being so far away.

They are having more deployments, you know, two and more deployments during their service.

They're all voluntary this time around.

And there are more women now who are serving, and many of them didn't expect to be deployed.

So a lot of National Guard, Reserve units, didn't expect to be deployed, but a lot of them were.

- Yeah, and that was a big deal, because I mean, so many National Guards are so used to doing, I would say, like state disasters, I mean that they're called to duty within their state.

And you're absolutely right, that so many were deployed that may have never thought that that was ever going to happen for them.

So is mental health one of the biggest issues that really worries you?

Because throughout society, I mean, you don't have to be a military person, that you may not necessarily seek the help, or deny that you need any help.

And veterans might be in that same position.

- Well, mental health is important, but we also wanna point out that not all veterans have mental health issues.

But those that do, a lot of that comes from trauma.

Seeing things that none of us wanna think about seeing, or having to do things that none of us wanna think about doing.

And so there is a lot of trauma that certain veterans have faced while serving.

And some of that is... we learned in the training today about moral injury, where it, you know, it's a conflict within themselves, it's some of the things that have to be done in war.

So there are a lot of issues that they face when they come home.

Grief, losing their battle buddies, losing soldiers around them.

And then they come home, and that doesn't just go away.

And then there's also the issue of suicide, and that is a big problem.

- Yeah, it is.

And it is important to underline that there is help out there.

And so please, I mean, connect with some of these agencies that can help you.

And you take a look at the colleges in the area, the Eastern Iowa Community College, Blackhawk, and you take a look at Western Illinois University, that have a major commitment also, to make sure that veterans are able to progress and prosper once they leave the military, as well.

Has that proven to be real successful in the Quad City area, this effort for retraining and getting a degree?

Or getting, you know, into an apprenticeship program, or any of the various ways that you get back into the workforce?

- Well, I know that there are several colleges and universities here, St. Ambrose, there's Blackhawk, that I know of right off the top of my head, who have veteran recruitment and services officers.

And Natalie Woodhurst from St. Ambrose is on our Military Advisory Committee.

And so they're there to help anyone who chooses to get education after service, but also getting a job is important to those who are returning.

And they have challenges with employers understanding how their... what they did in service translates into the civilian job.

So there are... there's a lot of work going on now around that, looking at resumes, and seeing, "Well, what did they do there, and how does that translate?"

So there's a lot of work going on in a lot of different areas, to support them in all areas, not just mental health, but healthcare, education, jobs, family support, finances, all of that.

- Yeah, it is the litany.

And the Quad City Community Veterans Engagement Board now will have you as one of the Co-leaders, one of the Co-chairs.

What do you hope to accomplish in the short term?

What is your biggest goal right off the bat?

- Well, just coming off of a big event so I'm going to savor the success of that.

But we do have a plan to provide some military culture training to clergy at the end of this year.

And then we're looking at planning another veteran's experience action center, or something similar, which we did back in 2019.

It was a two-day event where we served over 600 veterans, and it was very service oriented.

So our partners that participated had to provide a service that day.

And we had a lot of VA representatives from Chicago, and Des Moines, and Iowa City.

We had their healthcare folks, we had their benefits folks, which was the big draw.

So people could... the veterans could meet face-to-face with the benefits folks.

And there was over $250,000 in VA compensation benefits processed that day at that event.

And it was a very successful event.

We wanted to do it in 2020, and of course, COVID, we planned it in 2021, and COVID, and we had to kinda switch gears.

And we tried to do an online thing where we were able to help 40 veterans, so we're happy about that, but we do want to do that event in 2023.

And that what we're talking about, and hopefully COVID will let us gather in that large of a number, and be able to provide the services that the veterans need.

- Sherri Behr DeVrieze of the Quad Cities's Community Veterans Engagement Board.

On the air, on the radio, on the web, on your mobile device, and streaming on your computer, thanks for taking some time to join us as we talk about the issues on "The Cities".

(mellow music) - [Voiceover] Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home & Crematory have been serving Quad City families and veterans since 1889.

Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Homes are located in Rock Island, Milan, and Reynolds, and are proud supporters of WQPT.

- [Voiceover] At IHMVCU, we've always been here for you.

You are, and always will be, our top priority.

We care about your financial and physical health, and we are here.

IHMVCU is a proud supporter of WQPT.

- [Voiceover] Alternatives is a proud supporter of WQPT, and has been serving our community for 40 years.

Alternatives provides professional guidance to maintain independence and quality of life for older adults and adults with disabilities.