Page 23 - FOP August 2021

Portraits by Peter Bucks
Tributes to officers from the CPD Officer, Lodge 7 member and renowned artist
n BY ROSEMARY AN
Joselito “Lito” Mercado, who works patrol in the 20th District, did not set out to become a law enforcement officer.
At 18 years old, he joined the U.S. Air Force and was active duty from 1984 to 1992. Then he went into the Army Reserve. He received a college degree in continental and U.S. history and was teaching in California when he decided to move back to his hometown of Chicago in 1995.
That’s when Mercado learned that one of his friends was pre- paring to take the Chicago Police Department exam. He figured, why not take the exam too?
“I took the test for fun,” Mer- cado explained. “I was just cu- rious. Law enforcement wasn’t in my line of sight. [But] I went through the whole process, and I actually enjoyed [it]. It was in- teresting.”
Mercado, 55, ended up join-
ing Cary PD instead of the CPD. But when policing in the suburbs did not work out, he reapplied to the CPD and was hired in January 2005. Since then, the first-gen- eration law enforcement officer has never looked back.
Still in the Army Reserve, Mercado did a tour in Af- ghanistan and a tour in Iraq. He believes that having a military background gave him a baseline of discipline, love for the country and a passion to serve, all characteristics of the perfect law en- forcement officer.
“I still think the United States is the best country there is,” Mercado relayed. “I’ve seen good and bad times being deployed overseas, but it made you appreciate the U.S. It was just, I guess, somewhat my calling from the military, then, to teaching and then law enforcement.”
Mercado says the military and law enforcement both have a great sense of brotherhood, but law enforcement allowed for an exceptionally close bond with the people he works with. This is es- pecially true when he and his colleagues work 12-hour days, seven days a week.
“You see each other every day,” Mercado clarified. “You go through the same things pretty much every day — same struggles, even. For me, CPD, it’s become my second family.”
Aside from forming long-lasting relationships with his col- leagues, Mercado loves being able to help the community he serves. He says that officers in the 20th District respond to more
calls regarding mental illness as opposed to crime or violence, sometimes up to three a day.
“You deal with people who are having a mental breakdown [in public],” Mercado mentioned. “There’s a lot of that going on be- cause we have a lot of psych fa- cilities in the district. Residents permanently live there, per se, and [some] are going though their treatment on, I guess, a lifelong basis.”
Interacting with someone having a breakdown, who also suffers from mental illness, can be stressful. Instead of getting physical, Mercado says his ap- proach is to maintain at least an 8-foot distance and use de-esca- lation techniques by remaining calm and being a good listener. Then, he offers to take them to the hospital or to receive medi- cal treatment.
“I think these people just want to be heard,” Mercado revealed. “Give them a little distance, let them vent and just ask, ‘What can I do to help you?’ Some get violent or get ag- itated very easily, but we’re just trained to keep our dis- tance, keep calm and just try to connect with that per-
son in some way.”
Mercado believes that his de-escalation skills work at least 75
percent of the time. He says letting the person know that they are not in trouble and helping them to take deep breaths and calm down usually works.
“They say truth is stranger than fiction,” Mercado offered. “Sometimes it is. My wife knows if she’ll ask me how my day was and I will tell her sometimes I need an hour just to decompress a little bit, hit the shower. And if it’s a really bad day, I’ll just tell her, ‘You don’t want to know.’”
When dealing with a tense and potentially traumatic situation, Mercado emphasizes the importance of knowing the law and op- erating within its guidelines, as well as the police department’s general orders and laws. He recommends that law enforcement officers remain vigilant but know that they are being watched, as well.
“We’re all human, and we make mistakes,” Mercado noted. “But I tell people, ‘When you’re driving a police car, pretend there’s a federal judge sitting in the back of your car watching you. Just pre- tend at all times, and then you won’t make mistakes. You’ll watch your demeanor.’ Know the law and be very careful.”
‘Know the law’
JOSELITO “LITO” MERCADO
Star #9048 20th District
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ AUGUST 2021 23