Three criminal justice majors get practical experience too

 The trio is made up of Kent Fleischmann of Alma, who works as a dispatcher at the Chadron Police Department; Luke McGinley of Gordon, who serves as a reserve officer with the police department in his hometown; and Taylor Sperle of Buffalo, S.D., who is a military policeman with the South Dakota National Guard.

All three say they have had many interesting, meaningful experiences that have whetted their appetites for the professions they plan to pursue.

“I love it to death,” Fleischmann said of his experiences as a dispatcher since last March. “I don’t know of anything I’d like to do more than this. I feel I am serving both the public and the officers who are out there doing their jobs.”

McGinley began working with the Gordon police in September. He said he has always looked up to law enforcement personnel and finds it satisfying to be working side-by-side with them.

Sperle’s involvement with the National Guard has delayed his college graduation several times, but he will have had numerous practical experiences that should serve him well once he earns his degree.

Sperle joined the 235th Military Police Unit of the South Dakota National Guard in Rapid City while he was still a senior at Harding County High School in Buffalo in 2000 and has been heavily involved with the military ever since.

“I’ve always wanted to be a cop,” said Sperle. “That line of work has always fascinated me. It’s about the only way to make the world a safer place, I joined the National Guard in Rapid City because it offered me a chance to learn about law enforcement and also helps pay for my college education.”

The first year out of high school, Sperle worked in Rapid City and attended National Guard basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri. He spent the 2001-02 school year and the fall semester of 2002-03 at Chadron State before his unit was activated to take over the law and order duties at Fort Carson, Colo., when the regular military police there headed to Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. The tour of duty lasted a year.

Sperle was back at CSC last spring and has been enrolled again this past fall, but had to take off three weeks in October when his unit went to Camp Ederle in northern Italy to replace the regular MPs, who went for field training.

“I had to set up my schedule so I could do my college work while I was gone and after I got back,” Sperle explained. “The professors were very cooperative. I sent e-mails to two of them—-Dr. (Tracy) Nobiling and Dr. (Laura) Gaudet---while I was gone and had to do an alternative assignment for Mr. (Vince) Hazen in art. Then I tried to do the rest of the work when I got back. They’ve all been very patient. I finally took the last test that I needed to make up last Wednesday.”

Sperle has been so excited about his National Guard activities that he convinced two friends that he made at Chadron State—-Will Cleveland of Hershey and Donnie Ellsworth of Gillette, Wyo.—-to also join the Rapid City unit.

“I showed them some pictures and then took them with me one weekend for a training session. They got to shoot the M-16s. I think that’s what hooked them,” said Sperle, who expects to graduate in May 2005 and hopes to eventually go into federal law enforcement.

While his initial National Guard obligation will be up in another year, he anticipates that he will re-enlist. “They need people with experience to stay in,” he explained.

McGinley generally works a 12-hour shift with the Gordon Police Department each weekend. He is one of four reserve officers who complement Gordon’s four full-time policemen.

Now a senior at CSC, but still 1 1/2 years away from graduation, McGinley said his college training has definitely helped him with his job.

“Things we’ve talked about in class gave me a better idea what to expect when I walked into a situation for the first time,” he explained. “I might have been overwhelmed if I hadn’t known what might be involved.”

McGinley said he’s helped with numerous drunk driving arrests, two marijuana busts and one methamphetamine arrest since going to work about three months ago. Thankfully, none of those arrested have been his high school acquaintances, he noted.

McGinley hopes to become a state patrolman and maybe work for the FBI someday, he said.

Fleischmann usually works the dispatcher shift from midnight to 8 a.m. He said Chadron doesn’t go to sleep until about 3 a.m. most nights and is up and about by 8 o’clock the next morning.

“There are a lot of decisions to be made,” he noted. “The dispatcher has to decide what’s the most pressing thing that needs to be done. It’s all about priorities. Some things are just more important than others.”

The Chadron law enforcement communication dispatcher fields all the 911 calls for Northwest Nebraska and then directs them to the State Patrol, the Dawes and Sioux County Sheriff’s Offices, the Chadron or Crawford policemen and the fire and rescue units for Chadron, Crawford or Harrison. Fleischmann said the busiest times often involve severe weather and prairie or timber fires.

Fleischmann will graduate from CSC in May and plans to attend the Nebraska Police Academy at Grand Island next summer. He then hopes to land a job as a policemen.

“I’m glad I’m getting to learn the communications side of law enforcement, too,” he said. “I think I’ll have a pretty good appreciation for the dispatcher when I’m on patrol in a year or so.”

Fleischmann said he has great respect for the area law enforcement personnel after working for them nearly 10 months.

“They’re like a family,” he said. “They interact with each other and are concerned about one another and the public. It’s a good atmosphere.”