On the Record With: Crystal Lake Police Community Relations Officer Eddie Pluviose

CRYSTAL LAKE – When he got out of the U.S. Marine Corps after serving for four years, Boston native Eddie Pluviose felt a void.

After serving his country, he wanted to do something that would allow him to continue giving back. So he and a friend moved to Illinois, where Pluviose found a career as a police officer. He spent two years with the village of Hampshire before joining the city of Crystal Lake’s police department, where he has worked for the past eight years.

And now, a decade into his police career, Pluviose has found another way to serve people as a police officer.

Chief Jim Black appointed Pluviose, 36, to be the department’s community relations officer. He is six months into a four-year appointment.

Pluviose recently sat down at the Crystal Lake Police Department to talk to reporter Katie Dahlstrom about what his new job entails.

Dahlstrom: Was this something you chose?

Pluviose: Yeah, because, there’s a lot in law enforcement that the public doesn’t know. They think we just pull people over and take calls. But at the same time, not a lot of law enforcement agencies have community relations officers. With my position, what I like about it, is I get to interact with the community in a different way in terms of providing training and seminars and interacting with kids.

For instance, right before the Christmas holiday, I went to a couple of our elementary schools and read Christmas-themed books to a group of third-graders. So that was a plus. It’s different. You don’t see that quite often.

But there are a lot of things officers do all over the place the community doesn’t know about. So things like that, I put it on our Facebook page so the community sees us differently, in a different way.

Dahlstrom: So what’s your favorite book to read to the kids?

Pluviose: One that stuck to me is “Silver Packages” by Cynthia Rylant. There’s a moral to the story. It’s this child who, every December, there’s a gentleman who drives through town on a train, and he hands out Christmas gifts to the kids. There’s this one particular young boy who, every year, he’s there at the train station waiting for a doctor’s kit in a silver package.

But every year, the train comes back and drops off a gift, and he never receives one. But he never grew tired of not getting what he wanted. To me, the story has a staying-focused, it-will-happen [message]. As the boy grew into adulthood, he became a doctor and came back to that community and helped another child.

Dahlstrom: You talked some about what the job entails, but I’ve also noticed a lot more Nixle alerts going out. Is that you?

Pluviose: Yeah, it’s a good way of keeping the public informed, and it doesn’t have to be whenever there’s a road closure. I use it whenever we have an upcoming event. I’ve used it quite a bit with Coffee with the Chief.

As we get closer to the date, I’m going to use it to promote a child passenger safety seat event coming up in February at the Pauly Toyota in Crystal Lake.

Dahlstrom: You also mentioned you want people to see the other side of what police do.

Pluviose: I feel like, things like my position have been around for years, but people don't really know about it much. For instance, we're involved with Police Charities, who's involved with Shop with a Cop, and that's been around for 30 years. We just celebrated our 30th year of doing Shop with a Cop this past December.

Dahlstrom: Are there things you don’t get to do that you miss?

Pluviose: Patrolling the street – that’s the part that I miss.

Dahlstrom: Not so much the paperwork?

Pluviose: My current position still involves a lot of paperwork, believe it or not. We also contribute to the city newsletter every month, and there’s a segment for the police department. I try to focus on current events. For instance, last October’s newsletter, the topic was lottery scams.

It was mainly for the elderly population in Crystal Lake because, back then in October, we were approaching the holiday season, so I wanted people to get a head start in case they started getting phone calls saying, “You just won $5 million. All you need to do is send $200, and we’ll release the funds.”

I put out the information hoping people read it. Thanksgiving was more about giving thanks to our volunteers who have been a tremendous support for us.

Dahlstrom: Is there something you’ve learned in this position that you didn’t know as a patrol officer?

Pluviose: Before I got into this position, the officer who was in this position before me, officer [Kimberly] Shipbaugh, I didn't know how involved she was with the community. I didn't know it was so much. I only knew a handful, for instance, National Night Out, Cop on a Rooftop with Dunkin' Donuts, things like that we get emails about ... I didn't know she was so much more involved.

As part of our police department’s mission, under our core values, I feel the community relations officer plays a really good role in that. Not that other officers don’t – we do. But the type of service I’m able to provide is different from typical law enforcement.

The Eddie Pluviose lowdown

Who is he: Crystal Lake Police Department’s community relations officer

Hometown: Boston

Family: Wife, daughter, son

Hobbies: Riding his bike, becoming a foodie

Favorite restaurant: The Patten House Restaurant in Geneva