In Season 10 of “Chicago Med,” Flossmoor resident Les Rodgers appeared in three episodes of the popular NBC drama. He played Simon Albrecht, the hospital’s chief of security.
In real life, his current role also involves security. Rodgers is the founder of the Ballantrae Neighborhood Watch in Flossmoor, which he started five years ago.
He brings a wealth of experience to the position. Rodgers was a homicide detective for 18 years with a law enforcement career spanning 30 years with the Cook County Sheriff’s Police. He also was a member of the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.
Sometimes art really does imitate life.
The Ballantrae Neighborhood Watch represents a subdivision of 15 blocks just east of Cicero Avenue. Rodgers says that they have about 20 watch captains. The group meets monthly, sometimes more often when the need arises.
“They are the eyes and ears of the community,” Rodgers says. “And that structure allows us to produce trained observers who are trained in what suspicious activity looks like and how to articulate it.”
Rodgers teaches members to be keen observers and to record what they see. Things like writing down license plate numbers and car descriptions or including the direction of flight (so police will know which way the car is going) are invaluable tools for police.
Rodgers remembers one carjacking in particular where he was able to provide the police with a description of the vehicle as well as the direction of flight. As a result, the police were able to recover the car and capture the offenders, he said.
The neighborhood watch alerts neighbors to suspicious people in the neighborhood and works to prevent burglaries and thefts. It also watches for trends in the community that may need to be addressed such as speeding cars, parking that obstructs fire hydrants, thefts and unusual activity in the local parks.
The watch is on the lookout for anything that poses a threat to safety in the community, Rodgers said.
On another occasion, a student was jogging in the neighborhood. Neighbors observed a suspicious person lurking. They started making calls, alerting each other and the police and were able to keep the student safe, Rodgers said.
“It’s these instances that give people a sense of security and a sense of peace,” Rodgers said. “We look out for each other. If a neighbor’s garage is left open, someone will let them know. It’s the little things that build the cohesiveness in the neighborhood.”
For nearly 70 years, there has been a national initiative driven by sheriffs and police chiefs who were trying to get a handle on burglaries, Rodgers said.
The Journalist’s Resource, a research newsletter for journalists reported that “citizen policing programs were associated with a significant reduction in crime. On average, there was a 16% decrease in crime in neighborhood watch communities when compared with control areas.”
But there was a caveat. The “results of evaluations were mixed and show that some programs worked well while others appeared to work less well or not at all.” The findings were based on a 2008 U.S. Justice Department meta-analysis of “Does Neighborhood Watch Reduce Crime?”
Flossmoor Chief of Police Carl Estelle said he sees the value of neighborhood watch organizations like Ballantrae and appreciates the work they do.
“The more people that are out walking about and being neighborly, that just spreads and that’s a positive thing to have in the community,” said Estelle, noting the department is available to help any community interested in setting up a neighborhood watch. Rodgers is, too.
“Right now one of our initiatives is ‘Lock it or lose it,’” Estelle said. “We want to spread the word to residents in the community.”
The initiative encourages residents not to leave valuable items in plain view. Don’t make it easy for lawbreakers, Estelle said.
Rodgers said that’s the goal of the neighborhood watch, too.
“We create a harder target. That’s the goal. Offenders are looking for the path of least resistance,” Rodgers said.
Studies have shown that Neighborhood Watch programs contribute to a reduction in crime and a better quality of life, Rodgers said.
In his book, “Shaping the Lives of Our Children: Parenting is not a Friendship,” Rodgers writes:
“The police need the community and the community needs the police and when we effectively build that relationship and create a two-way strategic line of communication, we have a better chance of decreasing crime and also giving people in the community a sense of personal control when it comes to their safety and security.”
Rodgers, who has done countless interviews with suspects, said that his understanding of crime and knowledge of how the average criminal functions has helped him in his role as watch captain.
“I’ve learned what a lot of people are thinking before and after they commit a crime,” Rodgers said.
There’s a social and community service aspect to the community watch as well.
“We are also a social networking system. We are a great way to bring neighbors together,” said Rodgers, who lives in Ballantrae with his wife, YaSonda Monique.
The Ballantrae Neighborhood Watch hosts an annual Back to School Safety Jam where it gives out school supplies and information to students, said Rodgers, who is also a rapid deployment active shooter instructor. It’s important to him to help keep school communities safe.
Rodgers and his wife are business owners, too. They own the Southland Saints, a semi professional basketball team in the American Basketball Association. Their internship program won Business of the Year from the Moraine Valley Community College Job Resource Center. The team also recognizes deserving students during half-time with its Saints Rising Star Student Recognition program. Rodgers serves as the ABA’s regional director where he oversees approximately 50 teams in the central region.
Rodgers is also a sought after motivational speaker. He has worked with the Cook County Sheriff’s Department for the last eight years in partnership with Communities in Schools of Chicago. Rodgers does workshops on anti-bullying, leadership and more. He hopes to bring those programs to the South Suburbs one day.
Rodgers said he’s never forgotten his first speaking engagement. It was at an eighth grade luncheon and he passed out evaluation forms afterwards. One of the students in the audience shared that she had been contemplating suicide, but that something Rodgers said made her change her mind.
“From there I understood the power of words. And I’ve never stopped uplifting and pouring into people,” Rodgers said.
“My spiritual belief, my spiritual foundation is what keeps me hopeful that we can change the world we live in one incident at a time, one community, one person at a time,” Rodgers said. “We can look back and see what we set out to do and that is to make this place a safe place.”
Les Rodgers is available to help others start a neighborhood watch program. He can be reached at [email protected].