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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1987)
Wednesday, January 21, 1987/The Battalion/Page 9 r 'S officer uses experience in Chicago to run programs lobot helps Kapella keep lids in line By Carol Czyz Reporter t. Bernie Kapella stands 6 feet 4 inches tall. He walks through the IrjuT^halls of the College Station Police 1 Department with a sense of author- 0 IfOlj ity, but inside his stern exterior is a '■rm, caring human being. H'l wanted to be a police officer be cause I knew if I could change just on< kid’s life around it would be Hrth everything to me,” Kapella says. ^■He looks around with worn eyes Kt probably have seen too much in ■ years as a cop. His slightly gray ing hair and well-worn laugh lines "* * t *re lect the fact that he has tried to be opiimistic through it all. I His office is lined with various 'awards and certificates, and papers pBd books are stacked high on his revealing the heavy load of a S : aBeran cop at work. ■Born in Joliet. III., Kapella knows what it’s like to live in deprivation, ■pella was raised in an orphanage Hi says he never knew his father. Times were hard back then,” he Hs. “I mean, 50 cents was a lot of Hmey. ■‘And when you came from an or- lj am phanage and were poor, not many l/Uf plices wanted to hire you. So I ij Hried getting into trouble. I felt likt the whole world was against me : rsi!\ i bet ause I couldn’t get a fair deal uifai anvwhere.” ^■Capella says the turning point in was thsfH life came when he met his proba- B Hn officer. irepaavH’He was my inspiration,” Kapella sah. “He is why I wanted to become a cop. He made me think that 1 could make a difference. ■‘You realized, though, after you have been on the force as long as I have and seen the things I have seen, bright that you can’t change the world Sonma. yourself." vesaid -HKapella says he’s done what he year, i cari t0 help change things for peo- | H. While a Chicago police officer, ci: Photo by Bill Hughes Lt. Bernie Kapella of the College Station Police Department stands with FREDDIE, a robot that helps teach children about safety. V'ilsi be vi! t in Mi Dably on will m wanted to be a police officer because 1 knew H I could change just one kid’s life around it would be worth everything to me. ” — Lt. Bernie Kapella, Col- Ulegc Station police officer omet, 14 along ‘ ital ptnoc The last | th was!, re and fj is are toil nt and m im ihou .ariunuj by. You! s, Houd he started a program for a group of ; ! nine juvenile delinquents, and only i( jj , one of them, he says, ever went back 1 1 toicrime. h caustHt a P e ^ a s e Y es s ^* ne an< ^ hp s , . cuil into a smile when he talks of the " children he has helped. ■‘One of the girls I had in my Hpup came down here to see me a couple of years ago,” he says. “She is lOnglad now that she had someone to ^ 1 help her out when she needed it.” ■iince he came to College Station nine years ago, Kapella has itnple- || be ha^ mented all of the crime prevention programs for the city, and also was and hiv responsible for bringing the second San SalffiBice robot in the nation to College their n*' Station. The robot — known as ie r hu*EDDIE — can perform the work operadi 1 ) of 30 people and is used to teach withouti* school children crime prevention, me to Hoi “We had a contest and a litt le boy he was in College Station came up with that , r y, and! name for us,” Kapella said. “That’s lather"- how we got our Futuristic Robot tvV o sed Equipped with Devices Designed to ,, than s'- Inform and Educate.” he H Children have a limited attention span, he says, and an interesting, shiny robot will make them pay at tention. These are some things that helped Kapella earn the 1985 Officer of the Year Award along with the respect of many officers who work with him. “I am always trying to think of ways to improve things,” he says. “I was reading the newspaper and saw an article about a Florida police sta tion with a robot. “I thought that would be a great idea for our station, too. It can be used as a teaching tool or to help get someone who wouldn’t talk to an of ficer to talk.” Kapella says he loves children. He has five daughters of his own, two of whom are six-year-old twins, and he says he enjoys carving and painting wooden toys for them, Kapella says College Station is quite a contrast to Chicago, because crime is a lot worse and more abun dant there. He says there are more confrontations that force police offi cers to use their guns in Chicago. “It’s not like it is on TV, where you see the good guys and the bad guys shooting at eacn other all the time,” he says. “People don’t realize that is just fiction. “I remember once, in Chicago, we got a call that two people were uri nating on each other in public, so we went down there and couldn’t find anything. On the way back we de cided to check out this warehouse that was broken into quite fre quently. “We noticed that a window was broken. So we decided to investigate. My partner went into the building and I tried to wire for backup but it was 20 degrees below zero and the radio was frozen. “So we had to make our own judgement on the situation. T he person then ran out of the ware house and we told him to freeze re peatedly, but he didn’t stop. “He finally stoppecl, turned around and started reaching into his jacket. We didn’t know what he was doing so we fired and hit him.” A look of sadness mixed with re gret came over his face as he re membered the incident, and he says he will never forget the feeling he experienced af ter shooting someone and doesn’t know what he would do if faced with another such situation. But a police officer must protect himself, he says. It is a horrible expe rience to have to kill someone, he says, even if he is doing something to harm someone else. Kapella says such incidents, along with the fact that his girlfriend at the time was from Navasota, helped him make the decision to move south. He moved to Navasota, got married and began working for the College Sta tion Police Department when a juve nile officer position opened. “I started the crime prevention di vision and have brought it to what it is today,” he says. What it is today is the six or so people under him doing the work Kapella was once doing by himself. Kapella implemented allot'the ju venile crime prevention programs here, which include safety, shoplift ing, drug, forgery, home security, hike safety, rape prevention and something he calls “fish ’n’ fun.” “Fish ’n’ fun” is a crime preven tion program in which children 12 years and under are encouraged to spend time fishing with police offi- “I started the crime pre vention division and have brought it to what it is to day. ” — Bernie Kapella, lieu tenant cers. The program is aimed at coun seling children to prevent them from later breaking the law. Above Kapella’s desk is a framed needlepoint picture of all the pro grams he started. He made it him self, he says proudly. Jewell Owens, Kappella’s secre tary, says, “He’s got a right to be proud. Considering where he started and what he has been through, he has made fantastic ac complishments. “I think he has made a difference in a lot of peoples’ lives. He’s got a heart as big as the state of Texas.” 21< 29 [1st ress up your apartment with Find baskets galore in every size and shape to fix up your apartment this spring! Pot your plants,store your books, collect you laundry or hang ‘em on hooks. c BastetCo. Navasota Open Monday through Saturday 9—5 (409) 825-8030 If Walden isn't a nursing home, just what is it? It's a community for active, senior adults. We're 55 (or better) and we are living life to its fullest. Walden frees us from the routine of household chores so we can pursue our hobbies, travel, learn, grow and keep up with friends, family and grandchildren. Walden provides a safe, secure environment with the services of a fine hotel (or a cruise ship). 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