A very busy Saturday (part 2)

After our bagel brunch, we headed to the Schaumburg Fire & Police Open House. (The perfect followup to this morning's activity.)

From the event announcement:

In recognition of National Crime Prevention Month and National Fire Prevention Week, the Schaumburg Police and Fire Departments will be hosting a combined Public Safety Open House this Saturday. There is no cost for this event and residents of all ages are invited to meet your fire fighters and police officers, have some fun, and obtain valuable safety information.

Kids can make their own police and fire buttons Police and Fire vehicles on display Fire Department vehicle extrication demonstration (They actually used some of their station volunteers as the people needing to be rescued. We hadn't seen that before, just empty, wrecked cars that were pried apart and opened like sardine cans. It was interesting to watch how they actually get people out though. They pretended one driver had a spinal injury and got him out on a back board then places him on the gurney. The officer narrating the extrication also had the microphone up to a radio, so we could hear how the emergency vehicles were called to the scene and how officers communicated with each other, the stations, other crew, and even the hospital.
This demo was much more detailed than others we've seen! Shawn kept asking me if they were real or pretend!) Tour of the Police Station jail, range, and defensive tactics training area (We went on the guided tour, which started in the Sally Port as if we were following a criminal being booked. Shawn was amazed by how hard the bed / bench in the jail cell was. We talked about how people who break the law don't get nice things that are comfortable or fun like cool rooms, soft beds, blankets, or pillows, tasty food, etc. He also noticed that the back of the police car was just hard plastic without any padding for the same reason - I spared him the details regarding the necessity for easy cleaning, etc. Shawn was a bit nervous in the shooting range. He saw bullet holes in the walls and ceiling. The officer showed us actual weapons that the police have and explained when each would be used. He passed around a bean-bag like pellet that's used instead of bullets that'll hurt but not kill - Shawn wanted nothing to do with it. The officer also showed us the fish-hook like end of the wire from a tazer gun and even the zapped the hand-held tazer so we could see the charge. Shawn took a few steps back at that point! He was much more comfortable in the defensive tactics area, which reminded him of his karate classroom in the way the floor was padded. We passed around some padded training gear and defensive batons. There was a lot of Q/A among the adults, but that was the end of the tour for us.)

Police K-9 unit (There was 1 dog, Magic, who walked around with his human partner. No demos or anything. Fun to meet him & his human, but I had hoped for more.)
Child finger printing (We got Shawn's done, but they said Lilly's too young, which I didn't realize. No biggie. The prints came home with us along with a DNA sampling kit, so we could do it on our own if we choose. We'll see.)