SHALIMAR — As Okaloosa County Sheriff‘s Investigator John Merchant told the driver of a Jeep Patriot why he had been pulled over, The Rev. Franklin Browne of Hattiesburg, Miss., watched the passenger from the other side of the sport utility vehicle.
Throughout the stop, Browne surveyed the Jeep, watched whichever man Merchant wasn’t speaking to and even saw one of them throw a plastic baggie filled with a white substance from the vehicle.
“He was very alert,” Sheriff’s Investigator Al McDonough said of Browne later as deputies, Browne and other chaplains discussed the staged traffic stop. “He was on the ball, communicating with the investigator effectively.”
Since Monday, more than 20 chaplain trainees from Mississippi, Alabama and Northwest Florida have been learning how to aid law enforcement officers. On Wednesday, they put their knowledge into practice by role playing through some possible scenarios at the Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Shalimar.
View a photo gallery of Wednesday's training session. >>
The trainees made a death notification, dealt with a tempestuous traffic stop, calmed a domestic dispute, got help for an ill deputy and talked down a suicidal ex-deputy.
After each segment, deputies and chaplains discussed what strategy worked, what made the situation worse and what could be improved. The group also watched a video of a few of the role plays.
This week’s training gives chaplains a safe, no-pressure environment to experience what they may face, said Larry Carter, the Sheriff’s Office’s lead chaplain.
Carter, who has been a police chaplain for 10 years, went to his first death notification more than a year after his own training. All he could remember then was to keep the names of the deceased and the family straight. Wednesday’s scenarios gave the chaplains an experience to remember strategies, he said.
“They need to be prepared to assist officers any way they can,” Carter said.
The Rev. Ray Angerman of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Shalimar attended the training session to not only learn, but to support the Sheriff‘s Office.
“These guys protect us,” Angerman said. “They’re here for us. They allow us to do what we do.”
Hattiesburg Police Chief Frazier Bolton asked local pastors to establish a chaplaincy for his department. About seven pastors from Hattiesburg, including Browne, made a commitment to do just that.
“It’s just another extension of ministry,” Browne said. “We’re here to serve those who serve.”