Oswego residents get behind-the-scenes views of police, fire departments during open house

For Oswego resident Gabriela Olvera, attending the Oswego Fire and Oswego Police’s annual joint open house on Oct. 21 was a way to find out more about the operations of the departments.

It was also a way for her son to find out more about what police officers and firefighters do.

“Maybe he’ll want to be a firefighter or a police officer someday,” Olvera said.

This was the first time they had visited the main campuses of the Oswego Fire Department and the Oswego Police Department, which are located next to each other on Woolley Road. The open house offered families a variety of activities, including tours of both the police station and the fire station.

Oswego Police Chief Jason Bastin noted that for many people, the open house might have been the first time they had been in the police station.

“Unless you’re in some kind of special tour we do, this is the one chance a year where the public can come out and tour the facility,” Bastin said. “We have our officers who are tour guides and tell everybody, here’s what a roll call room is and here’s what it does and here’s what our holding facility looks like and here’s how it operates, that kind of stuff.”

This was Bastin’s first open house as Oswego’s new police chief. He was sworn in as the new police chief after Oswego village trustees unanimously approved his appointment at their Sept. 19 Village Board meeting.

He had served as interim chief since the retirement of former Police Chief Jeff Burgner on June 13. Bastin started with the Oswego Police Department in 2005 as a patrol officer and has worked his way through the ranks.

He had previously worked for the Winfield Police Department for about two years before starting with the Oswego Police Department.

Bastin views the open house as just another way to connect with the community.

“On TV shows, the public sees cops running after people and kicking in doors and arresting people,” he said. “Part of our job is arresting people, but we like to create these opportunities for positive interaction. The public can see what the police department is all about as well. Normally, they don’t get that chance.”

He was pleased with the number of people who came to the open house, which exceeded the attendance at previous events.

“We share a parking lot with the fire department and this is the first year where the parking lot completely filled up and people were having to park across the street,” Bastin said.

He estimated about 1,000 people attended the open house.