Spiritual calling: Hampton police seek chaplains

About 10:30 one night, the Rev. Vernita Baldwin received a call from Hampton police asking for help to notify the next-of-kin about a death.

As a volunteer chaplain, she said a death notification call can come any time of the day or night.

This call involved a Hampton teenager who attended a state college. The young woman “was hiking and she had fallen accidentally to her death,” Baldwin said.

“We had to do the death notification. … The chief … was here and the dean of the school. We went to the family home. I assisted in a two death notifications. The mom and the dad were separated,” she said.

Baldwin said officers are not always trained or equipped deliver such devastating news to families, unlike police chaplains, whose role it is to assist officers when dealing with critical incidents or other tragedies. Chaplains also are called to effectively minister to officers and their families following traumatic events.

Baldwin, 64, is among two chaplains who volunteer for the Hampton Police Division, which is in need of more clergy recruits, from all faiths, to support its growing staff. She started working for the department in 2010 before being asked to help out as a chaplain.

There are 279 sworn officers and 132 civilians working in the division, police spokeswoman Cpl. Ashley Jenrette said. For the fiscal year beginning July 1, the department is adding five positions, which would bring up the total number of police personnel to about 416.

There are two applications in the pipeline for the chaplain program, which is managed under police community engagement, officials said, and there are multiple vacancies.

“A good number would be 12. That’s why the urgency is out now to recruit,” Baldwin said. “If you add the number of officers and civilians … a good ratio would be 12. We are responding for almost 400 persons. You can’t get to everyone.”

Newport News Police Department nails that targeted number, with 13 chaplains who work with the department’s 423 sworn officers and 157 civilian staffers, Master Police Officer Brandon Maynard said.

The department doesn’t set ratios of chaplains per police employees. The program, under community outreach and run by Monica White since about 2007, is volunteer-based. The chaplains are available when the department needs them to assist at crime scenes and ceremonies, Maynard said.

“They are a valuable asset to the department and community,” he said. “We take them as they come.”

At crime scenes, police are busy gathering evidence, talking to witnesses or trying to secure the area, Maynard said. Family members sometimes don’t want to speak to police, he said.

“Emotions are really high at homicide scenes,” Maynard said. “The police are the last persons (families) want to see at a homicide scene. We want them to speak with a faith-based leader to comfort them and pray with them … if they want.”

Hampton’s chaplain program has been around for at least four decades, said Sgt. Mark Kincaid, who leads the community engagement unit.

“We’ve had an active chaplain program since as far back at the 1972. Over the last several months we have lost two chaplains,” he said, noting one had died and the other moved. “Obviously, we would like to have much more.”

Police chaplains need to be able to show they are ordained ministers and go through a traditional application, screening and background check process before being asked to come aboard, Kincaid said.

“We are not just getting a lay person and not only someone with the faith community, they have to be recommended by their church leadership,” he said.

Baldwin, who is affiliated with First Baptist Church East End in Newport News, visits Hampton police several times a month. She said she spends time with the officers and the staff — whether it’s a walk through and a wave, lunch with employees or grabbing coffee away from headquarters with someone who needs individual attention.

It’s important because when the time comes to step in to counsel, the chaplain is a familiar face and not a stranger.

In Hampton, violent offenses — criminal homicides, rape, robbery and aggravated assault — declined overall, according to 2017 numbers. Police still reported as many as 18 homicides that year, according to Daily Press archives.

“We are not paid. You have to really know you are called to this assignment,” Baldwin said. “It’s sort of like a mega ministry … to be ready for some kind of incident or concern. You never know when an incident will pop off. It’s just a matter of when.”

In addition to being available for critical incidents, the police chaplains also help with ceremonial duties, such as giving invocations during police academy events or officiating weddings.

Recruiting

Last year, Hampton police accepted a $25,000 wellness award to provide additional support and resources to officers, civilian employees and their families during critical stress and traumatic event responses.

A portion of the grant was used to send three volunteer police chaplains to a five-day training seminar in Lexington, Ky.

The seminar, sponsored by the International Conference of Police Chaplains, offered training for chaplains to effectively minister to officers and their families following traumatic events.

ICPC is a paid membership organization, based in Florida, that started in 1973. Among its goals were to create a central database of police chaplains and their affiliations and to promote a brotherhood with chaplains to promote fellowship, as stated on its website.

Its annual gathering also focuses training in the event of burnout and post-shooting trauma in law enforcement officers, post-event care, basic responses from family and victims who experience traumatic events, line-of-duty deaths and other protocols for defusing and debriefing those affected.

Baldwin was among those who went to the conference last year. Recruiting is a matter of getting the word out; a lot people don’t realize that police departments use chaplains, she said.

Baldwin says there are times she’ll spend four to six hours on routine patrol. A running myth among police departments is that chaplains ride around and then report back to the police chiefs, she said, a topic that came up at last year’s conference.

“The myth is not true,” Baldwin said. “The chaplains are not a snitch for the chief.”

Additional information about the chaplain application process is available by contacting Hampton police’s community engagement unit at 757-727-6111.