How Coloma came to vote on Blackwater
By Joseph Bustos
jbustos@svnmail.com
800-798-4085, ext. 529
ROCK FALLS - On Election Day, when most other voters in the Sauk Valley stood in the booth and pondered their pick for president, Coloma Township residents also decided they didn't want private military corporations getting money from the state.
In fact, most of them agreed with an advisory referendum that read, "Private military corporations shall not receive state funds for the training of law enforcement personnel and security guards." It passed 2,185-2,050.
Coloma Township only encompasses Rock Falls and some surrounding areas. So how did that question arise there?
Fred Turk, of Rock Falls, and fellow members of the Sauk Valley Interfaith Peace Action group asked the township board in April to put the referendum on the ballot. Every registered voter at that annual meeting was allowed to vote on the request, which passed 13-11.
An advisory referendum essentially is a poll to gauge voter opinion on a subject. Its result is not binding.
"I felt there were other ways to approach it, but that's the democratic system," township Supervisor Debi Burke said.
The referendum centered on whether private military corporations such as Blackwater USA should be allowed to train police departments using state money.
Blackwater is a private contractor hired by the federal government to help provide security in Iraq. From time to time, its employees have been accused of misconduct. For example, while escorting a convoy in Baghdad last year, Blackwater guards allegedly killed 17 people.
Blackwater guards had criminal and civil immunity in Iraq until a security pact requiring U.S. troops to be out of Iraq by 2011 was signed Thursday.
Blackwater has had a training center in Mount Carroll, in Carroll County, since April 2007, and so far has trained nearly 1,000 people there, according to an e-mail Sauk Valley Newspapers received from Anne Tyrell, its worldwide director of public affairs.
Blackwater's customers are police officers, tactical response team members and homeland security professionals. The company teaches skills such as hostage rescue, officer survival and weapons handling, Tyrell said. If Tyrell's e-mail is any indication, the company is not too concerned about the referendum.
"Blackwater is always interested in feedback from the public," Tyrell said. "Disagreement about what we do is often a result of misunderstanding, and we invite concerned citizens to learn more about us so that the debate is fact-based."
Police training and military training are very different, and police officers shouldn't be trained as if they are soldiers, Turk said. "We love this area of the planet," Interfaith's Turk said. "It bothers me that we have a training facility that sinister not that far away.
"Our belief is violence breeds violence."
Turk wanted to push the referendum after he learned that the University of Illinois entered into a partnership with Blackwater, which would run the school's police training institute. The partnership dissolved quickly, though, after it was reported by the Chicago Tribune and because of a possible conflict-of-interest for Tom Dempsey, the former director of the training institute, who helped forge the agreement.
Turk's hope is that the referendum will help lead to legislation barring state money from being used to pay private military contractors for law enforcement training.
According to the Illinois comptroller's Web site, Blackwater has no contracts with Illinois.
Still, state Rep. Julie Hamos, D-Evanston, introduced just such legislation in February; the bill is stuck in the rules committee.
Hamos introduced the bill after the Clearwater Citizens' Project, an Illinois anti-Blackwater group, approached her, said Angie Lobo, her chief of staff.
The Illinois State Police doesn't use Blackwater, said Lt. Luis Gutierrez, public information officer.
"We have our own folks that do our own training," Gutierrez said. "There doesn't seem to be a need for it."
Local forces - Sterling, Rock Falls and Dixon police and Whiteside and Lee County sheriffs' departments - also do not train at Blackwater.
Many departments utilize the state's mobile training unit, Northwestern University Traffic Institute.
Sterling Police Chief Ron Potthoff wouldn't rule out using Blackwater, though. It might be the place to go for rapid response training, needed to handle situations such as school shootings, he said.
"My opinion on training is, I go to the best training I can afford," Potthoff said.
Rock Falls Police Chief Mike Kuelper thinks such training would be beneficial, but it's too expensive for his department. Courses cost $300 to $1,300, according to Blackwater's Web site.
"It's a pretty good chunk of change," Lee County Sheriff John Varga agreed.
Erie Police Chief Mark Schipper, on the other hand, has taken classes at Blackwater at least eight times. He paid for his training himself.
"It's worth every dime for it," he said.
Schipper, a firearms instructor, shares what he's learned in firearms, hostage, extreme officer survival and carbine classes with his fellow officers.
He has nothing but praise for the facility.
"They've brought me to a whole new level of where my training is and what I could bring back to my guys as far as proficiency with weapons," he said.
"That's why I spend my own money on it. I think so highly of it, and they're very pro law enforcement."
