Antonio Becomes Cop for Two Days!

Moline Rotary Club Youth Exchange Student Antonio Leite recently expressed interest in learning about American law enforcement. Antonio has wanted to tour a police headquarters and experience what it is like to be a police officer on the street. Moline Rotarian Gary Francque was just the person to ask. On Thursday March 27th and Friday March 28th Antonio was "adopted" by the Moline Police Department and taken on quite an adventure.

Thursday, Antonio and Gary Francque took the grand tour of Moline Police Department Headquarters, and the Moline-East Moline Emergency Dispatching Center. Antonio first toured the  911 Emergency Dispatching Center where he learned all about our 911 system and our state of the art police and fire communications systems. Antonio then toured police headquarters and learned about every aspect of law enforcement including uniformed patrol operations, criminal investigations, evidence processing, undercover covert investigations, traffic enforcement, crash investigations, records management, and law enforcement training during his visits to each of the police department's divisions. 

Antonio then received an unexpected opportunity - he was invited to participate in the Moline Police Department's "Active Shooter Rapid Response" training which coincidentally was scheduled for that night at Moline High School. So, Thursday night Antonio, and fellow youth exchange student Leander (Rock Island Rotary student from Germany) joined 15 police officers at Moline High School to help train for school shooting scenarios. The boys served as training "role players" acting as student hostages during the scenarios, while officers conducted training in rescuing them. Just for fun, they were allowed to play the role of responding officers also. This is a rare opportunity for youth exchange students and the boys had the time of their lives!

Friday Antonio hit the streets of Moline, riding along with a Moline Police officer on the 8 1/2 hour night shift. Although the night was fairly quiet for a Friday, Antonio had the opportunity to observe criminal investigations, traffic violation stops, meet Moline criminals, and patrol the city.

Antonio now has a more comprehensive understanding of American law enforcement and culture through this unique opportunity offered by the Moline Police Department.

View the great photos of Antonio's adventure on Clubrunner under PHOTO ALBUMS / Antonio's Police Adventure.