Latest / WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio / Talk Line: Dixon Chief of Police Ryan Bivins shares department updates & events

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Talk Line: Dixon Chief of Police Ryan Bivins shares department updates & events · WIXN AM 1460 - Shaw Local Radio

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  Speaker 1: Good morning, Sock Valley. You've joined the Waking crew here
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  Speaker 1: on FM ninety five one and AM fourteen sixty WIX
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  Speaker 1: And it's eight fifteen on your Wednesday morning, and that
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  Speaker 1: means it's time for talk line and I'm joined in
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  Speaker 1: the booth for my first time since taking over the
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  Speaker 1: helm at the legendary Steve Marco studio. Our own Dixon
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  Speaker 1: Chief of Police, Ryan Bivens. Ryan, how are.
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  Speaker 2: You doing well? Thank you sir for having me.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for coming in on the show, and for
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  Speaker 1: all the fine work that you and your officers do
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  Speaker 1: protecting our city and serving us. I always love and
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  Speaker 1: appreciate the you know, community policing model, seeing how active
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  Speaker 1: and involved you guys are. Water fight you know, water
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  Speaker 1: gun fights with kids, all the events. It's it's just
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  Speaker 1: such a great thing. You get to know your your officers,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, you just look forward to it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And so.
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  Speaker 1: I think that's kind of where we're going to start
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  Speaker 1: the show todays. You've had some department changes that you
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  Speaker 1: kind of just wanted to update the community with.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, So last time I was on was in October,
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  Speaker 4: and you know, we've we've had a lot of changes
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  Speaker 4: I took took over in June. Chief Howell retired in May,
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  Speaker 4: and then I took over in June. Then in July,
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  Speaker 4: Matt Richards retired from deputy chief, so Aaron Simonson was
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  Speaker 4: promoted into deputy chief. And then here recently in January,
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  Speaker 4: Doug Laman, Deputy Chief. Doug Laman retired and so deputy
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  Speaker 4: Chief Chris Scott was promoted into Doug's position. So we
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  Speaker 4: have a whole new administration. It's kind of weird. We're
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  Speaker 4: now like the old guys in the department and the
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  Speaker 4: guys that were hiring, the guys in gall were hiring
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  Speaker 4: are you know, born about the time that I was
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  Speaker 4: graduating or you know, out of out of school. So
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  Speaker 4: it's a shift, and it's it's been interesting, but it's
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  Speaker 4: been been a really fun process to go through that.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, I just want to give a shout out.
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  Speaker 4: To to Steve and and Matt we call him Goose,
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  Speaker 4: it was his nickname.
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  Speaker 2: There's a whole story behind him, that story for another
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  Speaker 2: another time. But and then to Doug.
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  Speaker 4: You know, obviously they they were kind of that generation
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  Speaker 4: that bridge the gap really, you know, and handed us,
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  Speaker 4: you know, a great department. So shout out to them,
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  Speaker 4: Hats off to them for for doing that, and all
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  Speaker 4: who've come before us. I mean, the culture that we
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  Speaker 4: have at our department is really second to none. I
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  Speaker 4: didn't create that. It's been there. I'm just building building
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  Speaker 4: on that.
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  Speaker 1: So keeping absolutely love hearing that. I got to know,
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  Speaker 1: how did you get in the law enforcement in.
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  Speaker 3: The first place.
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  Speaker 4: So I was born in nineteen eighty six, and that's
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  Speaker 4: the year my dad was elected sheriff. So that's what
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  Speaker 4: I grew up with knowing. I just grew up in
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  Speaker 4: the law enforcement family. And you know, my dad was
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  Speaker 4: always like, hey, be a firefighter. Everyone loves firefighters.
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  Speaker 2: I didn't listen to them.
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  Speaker 4: I felt God call me into the end of this profession,
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  Speaker 4: and you know, that's I was going to go be
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  Speaker 4: a youth pastor. And then things changed and some doors opened,
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  Speaker 4: and so that's yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It's funny you say that I had youth pastor in
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  Speaker 1: my future when I was around nineteen or at least,
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  Speaker 1: so I thought, here we are with my phones on me.
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  Speaker 4: So yeah, it's you know, different doors open and close
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  Speaker 4: and you go where you felt. You know, God's leading you,
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  Speaker 4: and that's this is the direction that I felt, So.
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  Speaker 1: Did you ever see yourself as police chief or did
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  Speaker 1: that just it just agressed.
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  Speaker 2: It just kind of progressed.
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  Speaker 4: I think my goal was always just be the best,
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  Speaker 4: you know, where I was at. So I wanted to
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  Speaker 4: be the best patrol officer, and then as a detective,
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  Speaker 4: I wanted to be the best detective, you know, and
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  Speaker 4: so kind of I've got sixteen years on now, and
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  Speaker 4: so maybe you know, halfway through there, I started to
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  Speaker 4: have some thoughts of you know, someday, you know, if
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  Speaker 4: the opportunity is there, I would love to put in
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  Speaker 4: for it.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, well, I mean so I love hearing that
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  Speaker 1: because I was told by a buddy that I knew
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  Speaker 1: long time ago we kind of lost touch, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we all move on. But he said he was he
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  Speaker 1: was told by an officer in the military that some
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  Speaker 1: of the best officers, and it applies, you know, in
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  Speaker 1: the law enforcement, our gentlemen who have initiative, not because
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  Speaker 1: they seek promotion, but because they seek the satisfaction of
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  Speaker 1: a job well done.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, yes, And that's what I really try to tell officers,
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  Speaker 4: because you know, when you're an officer, a lot of
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  Speaker 4: times you really want to be a detective, right you
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  Speaker 4: always want to be somewhere where you're not is try
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  Speaker 4: to grow where you're planted and be the best that
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  Speaker 4: you can be. You know, it sounds kind of corny,
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  Speaker 4: but that's less like it's kind of one of the
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  Speaker 4: things I preach.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, No, it's true. It leads you on.
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  Speaker 1: If you're going to go, you know, to some other
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  Speaker 1: step or some other department, you're gonna get there. But
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  Speaker 1: if you're just in there doing the best you can
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  Speaker 1: do in that position. Absolutely, Yeah, you're either going to
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  Speaker 1: plant there and stay there and love it or you'll
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  Speaker 1: naturally just get pulled on. So for sure, I love
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  Speaker 1: hearing that, and that takes us to staffing and some
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  Speaker 1: new personnel you have.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, So we have a couple guys graduating from the
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  Speaker 4: police academy, Jack Dempsey and Cameron Miller. So they graduate
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  Speaker 4: tomorrow actually from the Souk Valley Police Academy. The graduation
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  Speaker 4: will be at the Dixon High School and so I'm
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  Speaker 4: excited for those guys. And then they'll start their field
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  Speaker 4: training and that field training is a sixteen week process.
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  Speaker 2: They go through different phases and they progress along the way.
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  Speaker 4: And then we just hired Cody Latino, So he starts
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  Speaker 4: the academy in May, so with hiring Cody, that will
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  Speaker 4: put us at thirty one officers. So we were recently
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  Speaker 4: approved to take our staffing from thirty to thirty one.
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  Speaker 4: That was a request I put in with the council
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  Speaker 4: and they supported it. Very gracious to them for supporting
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  Speaker 4: that request. And you know a lot of people say, well,
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  Speaker 4: you just want more officers so you can write more
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  Speaker 4: tickets and make more arrests, and that's far from the truth.
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  Speaker 4: There's a whole method, you know, strategy of why we
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  Speaker 4: want thirty one and who knows, maybe someday thirty two. Obviously,
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  Speaker 4: our town is growing, we're expanding south, our calls for
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  Speaker 4: service are increasing, but we want to be able to
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  Speaker 4: provide the best service to the community that we can.
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  Speaker 4: So we get a lot of complaints for speeding, we
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  Speaker 4: get a lot of complaints for traffic violations. Well, on
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  Speaker 4: a day shift right now, our minimum staffing is three officers,
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  Speaker 4: and if there's thirty calls in a day, which a
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  Speaker 4: lot of days there are, it's hard for those officers
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  Speaker 4: to have traffic enforcement, which they incorporate it throughout, but
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  Speaker 4: those calls are not just want and done calls or
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  Speaker 4: time intensive. You have to spend time with people, and
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  Speaker 4: so increasing our staffing is actually getting to that number
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  Speaker 4: is going to be very important.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm excited for that to happen. But it does
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  Speaker 2: take time.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean that translates across the board when
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  Speaker 1: you're dealing with jobs that deal with people. Is the
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  Speaker 1: more staff you have, the more time that that staff
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  Speaker 1: has to take when dealing with people, which is what
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  Speaker 1: you want. You don't want them so short on time.
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  Speaker 1: They're bouncing through and they just got to it's like,
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  Speaker 1: let's get through this thing. Like that's where the connection builds.
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  Speaker 1: It is and you feel that your officers are there
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  Speaker 1: for you, they're listening to you, and they're handling that
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  Speaker 1: situation because when it goes so quick, you get this
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  Speaker 1: dismissive thing in front of you, thinking you want to
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  Speaker 1: write more tickets, like stop speeding, stop speeding. We got
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  Speaker 1: kids playing like.
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  Speaker 2: And stop with the stop signs, follow the traffic right.
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  Speaker 4: You know, it's it's something that we could definitely use
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  Speaker 4: more help with within the community.
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  Speaker 2: We see it all the time. We get the complaints.
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  Speaker 4: On the way here, I saw some violations and you
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  Speaker 4: know it's it's we it's a it's a total team effort.
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  Speaker 3: Right yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's not about creeping two miles prod. You
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  Speaker 1: know who you are is if been down these streets,
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  Speaker 1: slow down? Yes, speaking you know of staffing, great that
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  Speaker 1: you guys have that This kind of really leads into
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  Speaker 1: Office for.
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  Speaker 3: Wellness, it does. Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So one of the things I has always been a
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  Speaker 4: passionate priority of mine is officer wellness. I started our
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  Speaker 4: peer support group I think back in twenty fifteen or so,
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  Speaker 4: and it's just kind of developed from there. And so
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  Speaker 4: we have a great, as we call it, our first
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  Speaker 4: responder resiliency program. You know, some of the stuff that
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  Speaker 4: our officers see, you know, on calls. You know, it's
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  Speaker 4: out there and for those bigger, the bigger departments, they
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  Speaker 4: see it more frequently, but we still see it in Dixon.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 4: There's still there's still abuse, there's still traumatic calls that
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  Speaker 4: we see. There's still death, there's still suicide, all those things,
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  Speaker 4: and it's unfortunate. It's part of the job, right, But
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  Speaker 4: we're normal. We feel it affects us and it's over
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  Speaker 4: time those things build up. So we're very proactive with
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  Speaker 4: officer wellness. One of the things I recently incorporated was
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  Speaker 4: just if call volume allows to give a twenty minute
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  Speaker 4: reset for officers on shift to go down and walk
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  Speaker 4: in the treadmill or do something.
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  Speaker 2: Because what happens within.
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  Speaker 4: The body after you go through a call that's traumatic
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  Speaker 4: or the adrenaline you know, spike and dump and the
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  Speaker 4: courtisol and that has a major effect when that's happening
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  Speaker 4: multiple times on a shift. And so you know, officers,
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  Speaker 4: if it's approved by their supervisor, they can go to
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  Speaker 4: our workout room. They can just twenty minutes quick, get
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  Speaker 4: a workout and just to kind of help manage some
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  Speaker 4: of that.
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  Speaker 2: So that was important, and that was definitely supported.
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  Speaker 4: Our city Council, our city hall, city managers are all
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  Speaker 4: super supportive of all the initiatives that we do. We
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  Speaker 4: preach like the holistic of pro to wellness, financial, spiritual,
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  Speaker 4: mental health, physical, emotional, and we have a good family
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  Speaker 4: support group growing with all the spouses. I mean, so
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  Speaker 4: it's not just this you know, compartmentalized or this this
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  Speaker 4: trend thing that we talk about of wellness. We actually
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  Speaker 4: live it out and take care of our officers.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm glad to hear that.
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  Speaker 1: It's it's something that's really needed and not something that
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  Speaker 1: every department is able to do, you know, or at
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  Speaker 1: least be able to put that kind of attention towards it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure they all try to, but I'm glad we
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  Speaker 1: have that for our Dixon officers. And the thing about
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  Speaker 1: your guys' job is that you know, this isn't something
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  Speaker 1: that's streamlined to where you know you're ending up with
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  Speaker 1: the same results. Like you said, you've got all these
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  Speaker 1: different calls. You're dealing with people, you guys are expected,
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  Speaker 1: you've got law enforcement, you're dealing with mental health issues,
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  Speaker 1: substance abuse couples. I mean, you're almost expected to be
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  Speaker 1: relationship counselors and constables and mental health technicians all in
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  Speaker 1: one role. And then everybody like expects this perfect outcome
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  Speaker 1: of like, oh, well, this is how it should have
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  Speaker 1: been always in hindsight, and so I just always feel
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  Speaker 1: for that, and so I'm I'm glad that you've you're
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  Speaker 1: finding these different ways to help your officers be able
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  Speaker 1: to deal with that.
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  Speaker 3: It's just not easy. Yeah. Yeah, So you.
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  Speaker 1: Guys, we'll switch to a more lighthearted bit of things.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to see some officers on rooftops and and
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  Speaker 1: other things as well. You guys have some upcoming events
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  Speaker 1: that you're going.
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  Speaker 3: To share with us.
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  Speaker 4: We do, so obviously you're going to see us out
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  Speaker 4: and about the summer. We'll have officers out on bikes,
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  Speaker 4: will be present in the community. But May fifteenth, we
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  Speaker 4: have a cop on a rooftop at Duncan and so
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  Speaker 4: we'll see a few of us up on the on
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  Speaker 4: the roof. It's kind of hard to see because you
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  Speaker 4: know the close proximity is to the road, but we'll
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  Speaker 4: kind of lean out over the edge and wave. So
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  Speaker 4: we have officers at Duncan and the whole goal of
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  Speaker 4: this is to raise funds and money for Special Olympics,
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  Speaker 4: and so we have a great turnout. This is you know,
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  Speaker 4: since Duncan's been there, we've we partnered with them and
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  Speaker 4: Detective Sergeant Sharp he leads this event and does a
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  Speaker 4: great job with it. All those proceeds that come through
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  Speaker 4: they go right to Special Olympics. So something we take
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  Speaker 4: pride in and and are proud to partner with.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I love hearing that for such a great cause.
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  Speaker 1: If you see a cop on a rooftop, don't call
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  Speaker 1: the fire department.
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  Speaker 3: They don't need Yeah, we're good. They're there.
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  Speaker 4: So I will say, the ladder to get up there
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  Speaker 4: is a little bit a little I don't know, a
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  Speaker 4: little sketch. It is a litt little sketch, I mean,
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  Speaker 4: but more coming down. So it's hard to actually carry
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  Speaker 4: coffee up and get up there.
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  Speaker 2: So but we'll make it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we'll have to get you guys a rope, pass
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  Speaker 3: the door. Call the fire department right any other events
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  Speaker 3: going on you want to share? Any other news?
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  Speaker 4: I think that's it for upcoming immediate events obviously, you know,
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  Speaker 4: then we kick off the summer, we're going to be
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  Speaker 4: partnering with the park district with Spark camps and have
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  Speaker 4: some officers there to be involved with the kids and
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  Speaker 4: just kind of you know, be present, and so it's
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  Speaker 4: not just the kids see the officers in the school.
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  Speaker 2: Or you know, they're they're there with them.
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  Speaker 4: Our s R. SRO School Resource officers are gonna partner
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  Speaker 4: with that, and so yeah, and then obviously Petunia Fest,
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  Speaker 4: you know, that's yeah, that's around the corner. I know
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  Speaker 4: it's a few months away, but obviously we start planning
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  Speaker 4: for that. You know, we've already started.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, I could imagine. So that's a big undertaking.
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  Speaker 1: You're you're already protecting the city and then to have
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  Speaker 1: this massive event, the influx of visitors here in the activity,
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: and it's always such a great time.
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  Speaker 3: It is.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, and we're fortunate enough to have different departments, the
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: Sheriff's Office, Lee County and Sterling PD.
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  Speaker 3: They help us out.
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  Speaker 2: State Police is always helpful.
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  Speaker 4: So yeah, it's it's a good time for partnerships, and
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  Speaker 4: you know, we want people to come out and enjoy it,
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  Speaker 4: but again just within reason, have fun.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, but it's that presence that I think
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  Speaker 3: that helps.
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  Speaker 1: Not to say that I think things would turn into
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: chaos or anarchy, but I think it's really that police
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: presence that helps people know if something's happening, you know,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: maybe a child gets separated from their family. There's plenty
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: of officers always on site, you know, to help. So
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  Speaker 1: I love hearing that. Looking forward to patute infestu Right,
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  Speaker 1: it'll be here before we know it, So not surprised.
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  Speaker 1: You guys are already planning ran anything else you want
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: to share while we got a minute.
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  Speaker 4: I think the only other thing I know, the e
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  Speaker 4: bike topic has been been a hot topic and we're
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: waiting on the state legislature to pass the law, so
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: we didn't want to enact in ordinance and then kind
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: of have that state law override whatever we passed or
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: have to change it. So they're hopefully passing that soon.
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  Speaker 4: It really comes down an education thing for the parents.
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: You know, kids are going to be kids, right if
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: if you let them do it, they're going to do it.
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  Speaker 4: So we just don't want to respond to an accident
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  Speaker 4: where a kid blows a stop sign on one of
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  Speaker 4: the e bikes and gets hit by a car, you know,
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  Speaker 4: So we're asking the parents to really partner with us
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  Speaker 4: to promote safety on the e bikes, you know, and
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: once that state law gets passed, we'll be able to
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  Speaker 4: actually enforce some of those things.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I've been curious about how that would
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: play out. I've I've been watching as the whole golf
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  Speaker 1: cart thing, Uh yeah, you know kind of rolled out
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  Speaker 1: in different communities, and so I'm not surprised something sooner
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  Speaker 1: or later kind of came down the pipeline when it
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  Speaker 1: came to these e bikes for sure. And you're right, parents,
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  Speaker 1: I mean you really that that's where it starts. Talk
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  Speaker 1: to your children. It's because you're right, kids are going
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  Speaker 1: to be kids. We were, you know, I did plenty
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  Speaker 1: of that stuff for sure, but now you got you know,
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  Speaker 1: electric motor strapped to it. It kind of really ups
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  Speaker 1: the antials that happened, it does, so just tell them
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  Speaker 1: to slow down. Ryan, Thank you so much for coming
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: on the show and for all you and your fine
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: officers do. We really appreciate appreciate it.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.