Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Deputy Chief Aaron Simonton talks Dixon Police community events

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Talk Line: Deputy Chief Aaron Simonton talks Dixon Police community events · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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Speaker 1: Welcome back, Sock Valley. You're with the Waking crew here
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Speaker 1: on FM ninety five one and AM fourteen sixty WIXN.
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Speaker 1: It's eight sixteen on your Wednesday morning. Happy hump day
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Speaker 1: to you out there, and you know what that means.
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Speaker 1: It's time for talk line. I'm joining the booth once
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Speaker 1: again by our good friends from the Dixon Police Department.
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Speaker 1: My first time with you since I've only been here
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Speaker 1: just a little under a year. Anniversaries coming up for me,
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Speaker 1: Deputy Chief Aaron Simonson.
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Speaker 2: Sir, how are you good?
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Speaker 3: How are you doing?
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Speaker 2: I'm very well. Thank you for coming on the show today, Brown,
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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
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Speaker 1: You guys are just always busy and you've got a
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Speaker 1: lot to impact today. But since it's your first time
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Speaker 1: on the show us getting to meet I just kind
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Speaker 1: of like to know a little bit more about your
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Speaker 1: your background. We were talking a little bit before we
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Speaker 1: got on air. But been with Dixon for eighteen years
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Speaker 1: or coming up eighteen.
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Speaker 4: In eighteen years in September, So wow, time flies, that's
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Speaker 4: for sure.
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Speaker 1: Congratulations, Thank you, Thank you. Was Dixon your first police department?
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Speaker 1: Did you start somewhere else?
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Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 4: So actually I'm born and raised in Dixon, graduated from
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Speaker 4: Dixon High School, and then further my education with Western
1:04
Speaker 4: Illinois University. Graduated from there with a bachelor's in Law
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Speaker 4: Enforcement and Justice Administration. And actually my senior year at Western,
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Speaker 4: I had tested for Dixon PD. Uh, they were offering
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Speaker 4: a testing and I figured, you know, let's just go
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Speaker 4: for it, and things worked out, got on the top
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Speaker 4: of the list, and they gave me a call, Hey,
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Speaker 4: would you like to take this? Yeah, and I wasn't
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Speaker 4: quite done with school yet, but we have a program
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Speaker 4: where you know, they'll they'll help pay for some of
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Speaker 4: your schooling as well to continue your education.
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Speaker 3: So I thought, I'm going to do that.
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Speaker 4: So I started the job, went through the academy, and
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Speaker 4: then I worked through school and finally got my degree
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Speaker 4: while I was working for Dixon PD.
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Speaker 3: So okay, it's been a ride ever since.
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Speaker 1: So that's been a pretty straight track. I mean, I
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Speaker 1: feel like you knew you wanted to do this young.
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Speaker 1: Did you come from a police family or are you
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Speaker 1: that kid wearing the badge?
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Speaker 4: You know, my dad worked for the Illinois State Police
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Speaker 4: for almost thirty years, and so.
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Speaker 3: I grew up around that.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, and then so he kind of had that influence
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Speaker 4: on me, but never told me what to do, right.
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Speaker 4: He said, you kind of pave your own way and
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Speaker 4: do what you kind of have your heart set on.
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Speaker 3: And honestly, this is what I wanted to do.
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Speaker 4: And then he retired from ISP, actually worked for US
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Speaker 4: part time for a couple of years, so I got
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Speaker 4: to be his field training officer.
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Speaker 3: I was kind of joke about that.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, and then he.
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Speaker 4: Became the sheriff Lee County for a couple of terms,
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Speaker 4: and now he's quasi retired, I guess, but he still
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Speaker 4: has his involvement with law enforcement.
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Speaker 2: So super cool.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: I've always admired people who knew kind of so early
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Speaker 1: on what they wanted to do. I was one of
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Speaker 1: them cats that kind of float around and took a
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Speaker 1: little bit till I actually got to like, oh, yeah,
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Speaker 1: this is what I wanted to do, this is what
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Speaker 1: scratches that itch. But for people like you knowing and
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Speaker 1: then getting to like get after it very quickly, and
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Speaker 1: you can already say you've got eighteen years in it
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Speaker 1: and plenty more to go. Man, you look like you
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Speaker 1: could run somebody down and go run two shifting.
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Speaker 4: Well, you have to let me stretch out a little
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Speaker 4: bit first, So yeah, but no, it's every day's an adventure,
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Speaker 4: I say, right. And then just recently, well going on
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Speaker 4: a year almost now, took over as Deputy Chief of Investigations,
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Speaker 4: and that has offered its own new set of challenges
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Speaker 4: from being on patrol and being in investigations now being
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Speaker 4: in the administrative role. We are, we're rocking and rolling,
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Speaker 4: so to speak with Chief Bivens at the Helm now
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Speaker 4: and we have a lot going on, so a lot
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Speaker 4: of good things.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you guys are so involved with the community.
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Speaker 1: That's what I love about Dixon's police department is that
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Speaker 1: community policing model. It's not just you know, you see
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Speaker 1: the presence. You know, you guys are out there protecting
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Speaker 1: and serving, but just all the involvement with the community,
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Speaker 1: the events, which is part of what we're going to
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Speaker 1: talk about. A big part of having the Petunia Fest
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Speaker 1: is having the security and the presence of mind and
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Speaker 1: the and the help. Right, It's not just making sure
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Speaker 1: people are following rules. You got lots of kids out there, yes,
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Speaker 1: people getting hot. So you guys were just all over
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Speaker 1: as you always are at the Petunia Fest.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
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Speaker 4: And this year we kind of adjusted some of our planning,
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Speaker 4: developed or added some things to our operations planned. Deputy
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Speaker 4: Chief Chris Scott, who oversees the patrol operation side, was
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Speaker 4: a huge help and he pushed forward some of these
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Speaker 4: new planning procedures and he was very, very busy and
4:26
Speaker 4: had a lot of meetings with the Petunia Board or
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Speaker 4: the Reagan Run crew and things like that, and.
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Speaker 3: It was good. Right, there's a lot of behind the scenes.
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Speaker 4: Work that people don't realize and in which you know,
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Speaker 4: which is fine. We expect that with big events. We
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Speaker 4: just know that it's going to be all hands on deck.
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Speaker 4: And quite honestly, it went as well.
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Speaker 3: As it could.
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Speaker 4: Mother nature, you know, had her hand in things. But
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Speaker 4: quite honestly, what are you going to do with that? Right,
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Speaker 4: we can prepare for it, but certain things you just can't.
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Speaker 4: You can't help, so we just have to roll with it.
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Speaker 4: And ultimately, I think in the end it was it
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Speaker 4: was a success on our end, But I know that
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Speaker 4: there's other things.
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Speaker 3: You know, with the.
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Speaker 4: Petunia Board, we kind of feel bad about them having
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Speaker 4: to cancel certain things, but they also understand with the
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Speaker 4: weather and you got to think about the safety of everybody.
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Speaker 2: And you you really do understood that.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's one of those things where nobody wants
5:18
Speaker 1: it to happen, but when it does, somebody has to
5:20
Speaker 1: make the call. And then if you don't, I mean,
5:22
Speaker 1: on the flip side of it, everybody's going to be
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Speaker 1: upset and say why didn't you? Right, And I mean
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Speaker 1: a person's more right to complain about that on that
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Speaker 1: end than this end.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, you.
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Speaker 1: Guys are always so very tactical in the way I
5:36
Speaker 1: get on my soapbox and I tell people be an adult,
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Speaker 1: you know, if this happens, like you don't get.
5:42
Speaker 2: Mad at people. I just don't like that.
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Speaker 4: And we and we know, like people want to go
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Speaker 4: out and have fun, right, Like that's our biggest thing.
5:47
Speaker 4: Like we we're just there as a presence if they
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Speaker 4: need us, perfect if they don't, we're there, right, And
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Speaker 4: this is our chance to kind of interact with the
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Speaker 4: community and and show the human side of things too,
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Speaker 4: and clients is key for us to you know, we're
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Speaker 4: not looking out there and going out there and just
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Speaker 4: trying to enforce everything, Like we just want people to
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Speaker 4: be safe and have fun. Yeah, and in a controlled
6:10
Speaker 4: environment as well. But I think you know, we have
6:13
Speaker 4: to make those tough decisions and say, Okay, if we
6:15
Speaker 4: have to shut things down, like that's the last thing
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Speaker 4: we want to have to do. But with the equipment,
6:20
Speaker 4: with the resources that we have, those are the things
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Speaker 4: that kind of guided us to make those decisions. Working
6:25
Speaker 4: with like the Lee County Emergency Management Deputy Chief or
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Speaker 4: Deputy Kyle Kellen and Seth Jansen, who's their new director,
6:33
Speaker 4: they were able to provide a lot of resources for
6:35
Speaker 4: us with like the National Weather Service, so we had
6:37
Speaker 4: up to date radar readings, you know, out every hour
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Speaker 4: on the hour.
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Speaker 3: We're doing kind of chat rooms with.
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Speaker 4: The National Weather Service, Hey, what's new, what's developing? Yeah,
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Speaker 4: And some of those things just popped up quickly and
6:50
Speaker 4: you got to make that decision and stand by it. Yeah,
6:52
Speaker 4: and luckily, you know, it worked out right. We just
6:54
Speaker 4: we don't want anybody to get hurt.
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Speaker 2: That's that's the Yeah, it's the right call.
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Speaker 1: I had one person got it wouldn't have been worth
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Speaker 1: not having made the.
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Speaker 2: Call exactly exactly. So just yeah, there's always naysayer's man.
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Speaker 1: I was a reporter for so long I was like,
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Speaker 1: people will comment something bad on a story about a puppy.
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Speaker 1: I'm like, just it's okay. It was the right call,
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Speaker 1: and you guys did all.
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Speaker 4: We get the frustration, right, you know, they maybe they
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Speaker 4: planned us for a long time. They had family.
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Speaker 3: Coming into own and we really wanted to go and
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Speaker 3: do this. We get it too, but.
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Speaker 2: That's that's it.
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Speaker 1: That's any day man, a pivot, order a pizza and
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Speaker 1: watch a movie and play a game with your family.
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Speaker 2: That's what you do.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly exactly.
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Speaker 1: But we'll move we'll move along on their National night Out,
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Speaker 1: always a big event for you guys.
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Speaker 4: So we're looking at August fourth, that's kind of that's
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Speaker 4: the national date, so to speak, and we're looking from
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Speaker 4: about five o'clock till seven o'clock. That'll be at the
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Speaker 4: Park District facility property. They're up on Washington Avenue, and
7:54
Speaker 4: we'll take over that parking lot. Officer camera is the
7:58
Speaker 4: is the one that's kind of overseen the operations with
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Speaker 4: this the last couple of years. He's kind of it
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Speaker 4: was it was quiet there for for a while. We
8:05
Speaker 4: hadn't really done much with it. And then he's like,
8:07
Speaker 4: well I want to step up and you know, do this,
8:10
Speaker 4: and then you know, we we just asked them, Hey,
8:12
Speaker 4: where do you want support at? And so he's he's
8:14
Speaker 4: ran with that, and it's just kind of a different
8:17
Speaker 4: way for us to interact with the community first responders.
8:20
Speaker 4: But it's not just police fire. We also have National
8:23
Speaker 4: Guard that was there with a few of their toys.
8:27
Speaker 4: Life Light came there with their helicopter. Barring any emergencies,
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Speaker 4: they'll land and hang out there for a little while
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Speaker 4: and let people crawl around and the kids crawl around
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Speaker 4: look at those things, which is neat, but other community
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Speaker 4: organizations do not just first responders, so people can see,
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Speaker 4: you know, that connection that we can all have more
8:44
Speaker 4: of like a neighborhood setting, right. So and we again
8:48
Speaker 4: we get to interact with them kind of outside the
8:50
Speaker 4: job and you know, play games and things like that.
8:53
Speaker 4: So we're always looking at adding as well, expanding and
8:57
Speaker 4: seeing if anybody else wants to partner with us.
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Speaker 3: And it's a really good event.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always a fantastic event. Everybody has a great time.
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Speaker 2: It just gets bigger and bigger and better.
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Speaker 1: Always so much focus with the kids, which also kind
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Speaker 1: of leads into the fact another regular event for you
9:13
Speaker 1: guys helping out with his tools for school.
9:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, tools for School.
9:16
Speaker 4: I actually heard Mandy Dallas do a radio commercial here
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Speaker 4: just a little bit ago. But we with the Dixon
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Speaker 4: Police Charitable Association, we're a proud donor towards that event.
9:29
Speaker 4: But August sixth, that looks like from nine am to
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Speaker 4: one pm and then four to six pm.
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Speaker 3: At the Elks Lodge.
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Speaker 4: They're going to be holding the event and we'll have
9:36
Speaker 4: a couple of our officers present to to interact with
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Speaker 4: the kids. But basically they'll be providing eligible K through
9:44
Speaker 4: twelve students with school supplies and a backpack and things
9:48
Speaker 4: like that that again are eligible for those things, and
9:52
Speaker 4: that's been a pretty long standing event as well. Aside
9:55
Speaker 4: from that, we're also involved with like our Clothes for
9:58
Speaker 4: Kids and Shop with a Cop Close for Kids will
10:00
Speaker 4: be around the start time of school.
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Speaker 3: We'll just we're just going to try to figure out.
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Speaker 4: A date that works and uh, you know, take the
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Speaker 4: kids shopping for school supplies as well that may need it,
10:11
Speaker 4: or or clothing whatever they may need, and we'll put
10:15
Speaker 4: a certain dollar amount on that and help out as
10:17
Speaker 4: many kids as we can.
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Speaker 2: I can't believe we're getting so close to school. Oh yeah,
10:22
Speaker 2: and the years flying it does.
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Speaker 4: We always say once Petunia Fest is done, ye, like
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Speaker 4: it's it's cruise control right and and school is just
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Speaker 4: around the corner, and uh yeah, follow over, be here
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Speaker 4: before we know it.
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Speaker 2: Oh my good. You got kids going back into school.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I have three kids actually, so yeah, one that's
10:39
Speaker 4: going to be going into high school and the other
10:41
Speaker 4: ones are going to be in the middle school. So
10:43
Speaker 4: that's that's going to be a different adventure for for
10:45
Speaker 4: him going into high school.
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Speaker 3: But I'm looking forward to it.
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Speaker 4: I really am, you know, getting involved with the different
10:50
Speaker 4: athletics and things like that, so.
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Speaker 2: It's very cool. Interesting. Are they interested in any sports today?
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Speaker 3: They all are so would be you know, football and baseball.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you know, rock and rolling with football right now,
11:01
Speaker 4: which is really cool to see. And then my other
11:04
Speaker 4: two are you know, volleyball, softball and soccer, so okay, ye, yeah,
11:08
Speaker 4: it's fun. So we kind of have a little variety
11:11
Speaker 4: that we're gonna see and and hopefully you know, it
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Speaker 4: all works out for them and get to chase them
11:15
Speaker 4: all around at their events.
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Speaker 1: So I got too started doing their football practice this year.
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Speaker 1: It's our last two that are in school, so yeah,
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Speaker 1: it's looking forward to having the lawn chair out and
11:26
Speaker 1: watching the football games in the evening.
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Speaker 4: So yeah, I for a while I was I was
11:31
Speaker 4: helping coach junior tackle football, and then I would help
11:34
Speaker 4: you know with softball as well, and then baseball. But
11:36
Speaker 4: now with my boy going into high school, so I'm
11:39
Speaker 4: probably not going to be coaching anymore, so I'm gonna
11:41
Speaker 4: have to be a spectator. I might not be the
11:43
Speaker 4: greatest spectator pacing around a lot and whatnot, but it's yeah,
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Speaker 4: it's a blast to see them do those things and develop.
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Speaker 1: Well, yeah, now that that's awesome man. You know, speaking
11:55
Speaker 1: of that before school gets back in. What I've really
11:59
Speaker 1: been loving out of the Park district and hearing that
12:01
Speaker 1: you guys are having involvement with is the Spark Camp.
12:04
Speaker 2: Yes.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, so our two school resource officers, Officer mcwethee who
12:09
Speaker 4: is with Reagan and Madison School and then Officer Coffee
12:13
Speaker 4: who's with the Dixon High School. They during their like
12:17
Speaker 4: summer scheduling because you know, schools not in sessions. So
12:21
Speaker 4: what could we do with them aside from you know,
12:24
Speaker 4: patrol shifts?
12:25
Speaker 3: What are some other.
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Speaker 4: Activities we could get them involved with because they are
12:27
Speaker 4: so close with the kids and they're a very recognizable
12:31
Speaker 4: face for a lot of the kids. They said, well,
12:34
Speaker 4: we'd like to get involved with any community events that
12:36
Speaker 4: are taking place over the summer.
12:37
Speaker 3: Well perfect.
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Speaker 4: So we reached out to the park district, who we've
12:40
Speaker 4: partnered with before on other events, and said, hey, could
12:44
Speaker 4: we take these guys out there and have them interact
12:47
Speaker 4: with the kids there at the camp there Like yeah,
12:49
Speaker 4: just let us know when they're available and we'll put
12:52
Speaker 4: them to good use. So I think they've been out
12:54
Speaker 4: there running out with the kids on these hot days,
12:56
Speaker 4: but also we let them know like, hey, whatever you
13:00
Speaker 4: want to as far as interacting with the kids, what
13:03
Speaker 4: kind of messages you want to be maybe relay And
13:05
Speaker 4: I think what they were wanting to do is talk
13:07
Speaker 4: about like internet safety, you know, kind of get a
13:09
Speaker 4: little plug with things like that and just let them know,
13:12
Speaker 4: especially nowadays with technology, as you know, it's always developing,
13:16
Speaker 4: and we just want to make sure that the kids
13:18
Speaker 4: are safe and they know who to talk to if
13:21
Speaker 4: something's going on, whether it's parents or police, and know
13:24
Speaker 4: that they're not going to be in trouble. If something's
13:26
Speaker 4: going on and they they feel like they need help,
13:29
Speaker 4: who they can turn to RIGHT and express kind of
13:32
Speaker 4: that message with the kids. But also like get they
13:34
Speaker 4: get to go around and play at camp right and
13:37
Speaker 4: be a part of that, and I think that's a
13:39
Speaker 4: good break for them and a good kind of change
13:42
Speaker 4: of pace.
13:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's good for the kids to get to
13:45
Speaker 1: see that side of the officers and get to know, like,
13:48
Speaker 1: these aren't just the people making sure you're behaving and
13:51
Speaker 1: following the rules. Yeah, it's like you said, these are
13:53
Speaker 1: people here to help you, people here to talk to you.
13:56
Speaker 1: You know, even if you don't think something that's going
13:58
Speaker 1: on relates to them, you could go to them with
14:01
Speaker 1: your problem and they're gonna help you. Oh you're gonna
14:04
Speaker 1: help you find some kind of resource, some kind of person, yes, whatever,
14:06
Speaker 1: you know. And that's just again relates back to that
14:09
Speaker 1: community policing model for sure. That just works so well.
14:13
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and that's that's big. I know some people,
14:16
Speaker 4: you know, you'll have we have a lot of advocates
14:18
Speaker 4: for SROs, and then there's some people that feel differently
14:21
Speaker 4: about that, and we get that they have a.
14:23
Speaker 3: Right to that opinion.
14:23
Speaker 4: But the thing of it is is having the school
14:25
Speaker 4: resource officers in the school. It's not just it's not
14:29
Speaker 4: to put them in there as a show of force, right,
14:31
Speaker 4: it's to provide security. Of course, with the way the
14:33
Speaker 4: world is, you can't be too careful. But it's just
14:37
Speaker 4: another resource. And and also it shows them, you know,
14:41
Speaker 4: these kids that they can come and interact with them,
14:43
Speaker 4: and it's a great It is a great community engagement
14:46
Speaker 4: resource as well. And we get nothing but awesome feedback
14:50
Speaker 4: from the administration at the high school and the middle
14:53
Speaker 4: schools about those two officers. I think they've really find
14:56
Speaker 4: found their their spot there too, and they love it.
15:01
Speaker 3: So we're definitely glad to have them there.
15:03
Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad that they're in the schools. I think
15:05
Speaker 1: school resource officers. I've talked to several over my time
15:09
Speaker 1: as a reporter, and it's an absolutely crucial position, not
15:13
Speaker 1: just like you said, for safety, but being that bridge
15:17
Speaker 1: between kids and policing and kind of getting them exposed
15:21
Speaker 1: to that. It's just really good all around. It's one
15:24
Speaker 1: of the ways we're advancing is society and trying to
15:26
Speaker 1: like find better ways.
15:28
Speaker 4: Definitely, because some of these kids, we don't know all
15:31
Speaker 4: their backgrounds right and what their upbringing is like, and
15:34
Speaker 4: there's maybe some that come from tough households and they
15:38
Speaker 4: may not have had positive interactions or maybe they've been
15:41
Speaker 4: told different things about police officers, and if they can
15:44
Speaker 4: kind of see that other side and understand that every
15:46
Speaker 4: time a police officers around doesn't mean that somebody's going
15:48
Speaker 4: to get in trouble, right. Yeah, it's kind of hard
15:50
Speaker 4: to break down those barriers sometimes, but that having the
15:54
Speaker 4: school resource officers in there, that's one of those ways.
15:57
Speaker 1: And it's another set of trained eyes that might be
16:00
Speaker 1: able to pick up on some things they see and
16:02
Speaker 1: a kid like man, maybe something's going on at home
16:05
Speaker 1: or something with this kid that nobody else has seen exactly,
16:07
Speaker 1: but this trained professional is like, yeah, I see that,
16:10
Speaker 1: maybe I can go talk to somebody, we can see
16:12
Speaker 1: if if they need some help, and there's something.
16:14
Speaker 2: We can do.
16:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, which has definitely happened before. And so yeah, that
16:18
Speaker 3: that that's a huge part of it too. That's a
16:20
Speaker 3: great point.
16:21
Speaker 2: Well, Aaron, we're unfortunately we're out of time.
16:23
Speaker 1: I love everything that that you guys do, but look
16:26
Speaker 1: forward to having you back on the show.
16:27
Speaker 3: Yeah.
16:28
Speaker 1: Sure, thank you for coming and sharing all this and
16:30
Speaker 1: for everything that you and everyone at the department does.
16:33
Speaker 2: We really appreciate it.
16:34
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Thank you very much. Yeah, we'll
16:36
Speaker 3: come back anytime.
16:37
Speaker 2: Awesome