Page 52 - December 2020

Creating serenity in the 5th District
After months of collecting donations in the 5th District, mem- bers from the CAPS office were able to build a serenity space for law enforcement officers in late September.
As the holiday season approaches — a time typically wrought with depression and law enforcement suicides — this serenity space may prove to be vital to officers’ well-being.
“A lot of time, people come in and just need a space to sit down and chill for a few minutes,” said Samanthia Smith of the 5th District CAPS office. “We thought it would be a nice thing to do. We really didn’t know how the officers would take to it, but surprisingly the first day we put it out there, it was quite a few people. They’ve loved it since then.”
Just a few days after the establishment of the serenity space, it was dedicated to law enforcement officers lost in the line of duty in the 5th District.
Chairs with royal blue upholsteries and pillows with the blue line flag sit on lounge chairs. Each pillow displays the name of a fallen law enforcement officer, his or her star number and his or her end-of-watch date.
The space sits right behind the station and is open only to law enforcement officers. It provides a brief respite from the stress- ors that officers endure every day on the job.
Especially with the difficulties of this past year, Smith hopes that the serenity space can act as a getaway for peaceful reflec- tion.
“In our district, we don’t have a lot of places where we can get downtime when not a lot of people are there,” she shared. “So it’s very important here. We’ve had a dark cloud over this district for a while — we just lost another individual last week. We’ve had so many people lost here. I think we need this.”
52 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ DECEMBER 2020
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