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P traits by Peter Bucks
Tributes to officers from the CPD Officer, Lodge 7 member and renowned artist
Believing and achieving
When Chicago Police Officers discuss the history and scope of the 14th District, the phrases “nurturing environment” and “fertile teaching ground” don’t tend to enter the conversation. A cluster of neighborhoods whose infamous dealings earned the City of Chicago its 1970s title “The Wild, Wild West” isn’t ex- actly the typical setting to foster learning and personal growth. But for one retired officer, that’s exactly what it was.
After having spent close to 10 years teaching seventh and eighth grade social studies, read- ing and English in Chicago public schools, Ken Trempe joined the force with the goal of continu- ing his mission as an educator, in addition to serving the citizens of Chicago. And over the course of three decades, he used the rough and unforgiving streets of the 14th District as a hands-on, high-stakes curriculum for new recruits.
“It’s the same job; we just don’t
the principal’s office,” says Trempe, reflecting
on the educational component that pervaded his
law enforcement career. A field training officer, he would be the first point of contact for recruits on their initial days working the beat, and he embraced that posi- tion as an opportunity.
“Part of the problem with the CPD [field training] is a lot of guys were forced into it, who didn’t want to do it. I wanted to do it because I was able to get back to my first day on the street—the exhilaration,” he says. Seeing him- self in the face of each new recruit, Trempe lived the job as a calling, taking care to guide his law enforcement pu- pils with the same tough love he used to guide his mid- dle schoolers—one of whom he once sent to the princi- pal’s office to call his own mother to tell her exactly what names he had just hurled at another student’s mother.
Trempe was known to give his first-dayers such frank advice as, “Pay attention to where we are, so if I get shot, you’ll know what to say when you [radio] for help.” But he always made sure his recruits had some fun out there, too.
“If you talk to people, they’ll tell you, ‘Yeah, when I was with him, we had a good time.’ ”
On occasion, Trempe would rise to the challenge of explaining to his recruits the stark difference between perception and reali- ty. Many officers would enter the force with archaic protocol from retired relatives and ideas about field work they gleaned from the latest blockbuster. When one ea- ger officer told him how much he wanted to say during their latest domestic call, “We gotta come back here, everybody’s going to jail!” Trempe responded with a knee-jerk, “What are you talking about?” before educating the young man on how to approach those calls with insight, strength and empathy.
Throughout his career, Trempe enjoyed an ongoing series of nota- ble moments, from being mistak- en for Donald Trump’s son while visiting Sammy Sosa with his wife
in the Dominican Republic, to catching a famed
bank robber his second day back on the street after undergoing open heart surgery. The daily adventure Trempe experienced in the field with recruits and patrolling with partners reawakened his love for the game year after year. And while he misses the energy of law enforcement, one incident in particular led
him to realize his time to retire had arrived.
In recent years, the 14th District has pushed out some
of its rougher residents to make way for what some call yuppies and their puppies. When called to one of the more notorious neighborhood parks to appease a wom- an distressed by the number of off-leash purebred dogs, Trempe knew he had gone as far as he would go with the CPD.
On the backs of the baseball cards Trempe would of- fer young Chicago residents—cards that featured his likeness—the message read: “Aim high, set goals, and if you can conceive it, and believe it, you can achieve it.” With help from all those who ensured his safe return each day, Trempe was able to make a difference in the lives of countless young officers, and truly live by those words.
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KENNETH ‘KEN’ TREMPE Star# 17443