Meet the four volunteer tour guides showing visitors around the Naperville Police Department: Nancy Quigley, Louis and Helen Halkias, and Susan Baltaragis.
Four tour guides have been volunteering for years
The four guides have been volunteering at the police department for years, taking visitors, often young students, through the building they now know like the back of their hands.
Nancy Quigley, the longest-serving volunteer, has been giving tours for over 20 years.
“I love this department. I think we have the best department in the whole country, and I just want to give back to them and help them,” said Quigley.
The couple, Louis and Helen, have been volunteering together for almost a decade, after learning about the opportunity during their time in the Naperville Citizen Police Academy.
“I was a federal law enforcement officer for 32 years, and it was a perfect way to supplement and support what the Naperville Police Department is doing here,” said Louis.
Like the pair, Baltaragis also learned of the opportunity during the Citizen Police Academy and has been volunteering for almost five years.
“I thoroughly enjoyed that and met people during that process that got me interested in doing volunteering more with the city, and, eventually, got hooked up to be a tour guide for the Naperville Police Department,” said Baltaragis.
One of the perks of the job is picking up new facts about the department to share.
“Naperville actually has more streets than Chicago does, so one of the things the police officers have to do is to learn all the streets,” said Baltaragis.
From roll call to dispatch, visitors explore different areas
The tour begins at the front desk, where visitors are greeted by a guide before heading toward different areas of the building, making stops along the way.
One is the roll call room, which former school teacher Helen says is one of her favorites when she’s on a tour with kids.
“I compare it to a classroom, and basically, police officers come here at the beginning of their 12-hour shift, just like you, the students, attend a classroom in the morning. The teacher takes attendance. The sergeant that usually runs the meeting takes attendance and then kind of gives an overall plan of what the day looks like,” said Helen.
Another stop is the Emergency Communications Center, which handles all calls to the police and fire departments.
According to the tour guides, in total, the center receives about 200 calls a day and about 5,000 a month.
“They are trained to be able to figure out what’s an emergency call, what’s not an emergency call. And normally with emergency calls, they’re trained to get information out of people and be calm about it,” said Louis.
Another stop of interest? The jail. Visitors can take a closer look inside as long as it’s empty.
“It’s the kids’ favorite place to come. We have 36 cells. We have a big cell. It’s called the community cell, where we can, if we arrest a group of people, put them in there for their bookings. If they’re not violent, we can put them in there,” said Quigley. “We have a rubber cell for somebody that we think is going to hurt themselves. We keep men and women separate…Also, children and adults are separate.”
Guides giving back one tour at a time
After about an hour of exploring, guests wrap up their visit where it first began, back at the front desk, often with a better understanding of the police department.
For the four tour guides, the experience allows them to give back while educating and connecting with members of the community.
“It’s a very worthwhile activity that we enjoy doing,” said Helen.
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