College is all about having new experiences and gaining perspective, and often this means changing career paths more than once. For school resource officer (SRO) Gus Wessel, this meant starting his time at NIC as a nursing student and eventually finding his place in law enforcement.
“The most satisfying part for me generally is working in the community that I live in, and when I walk downtown with my family I know that we live in a safe community because I am part of that team keeping it safe,” Wessel said.
Wessel started attending NIC in 2003 with a nursing career in mind but took an intro to law enforcement class and said it intrigued him.
“I didn’t go to school for it knowing that that’s what I wanted to do,” Wessel said. “It was more on a whim. Once I got into it, I realized how much I liked it — how much I felt I could do in that role.”
Wessel completed his AA for law enforcement at NIC in 2005. His training included gaining experience in defense tactics, interview techniques, field sobriety tests and emergency-vehicle operations. At 19 years old, he started an internship as a reserve officer. Wessel received his bachelor’s degree in
justice studies at Lewis-Clark State College.
As a reserve officer, Wessel volunteered 16 hours a month and worked full time on bike patrol in the summer. The Coeur d’Alene police department hired Wessel at 21, the age required to become a full-time officer. Wessel served as a training officer and drug recognition expert, and was awarded Top Cop for DUI arrests in his department by the Kootenai County Substance Abuse Council for a few years in a row.
“The hardest part [of working in law enforcement] is probably separating your personal feelings,” Wessel said. “Especially now as a parent when I see things happening to children.” As a police officer, Wessel said
it’s discouraging when officers do the best job they can in the line of duty, only to have their work torn apart months or years later in court.
“Having a defense attorney try to poke holes in your work is frustrating,” Wessel said. “You have to learn to separate. I do my job, I do it to the best of my ability, and whatever happens, I go to court and I testify to the best of my ability.”
He also said that people always have a different perception of what they think police should be doing in any given moment based on their life circumstances and experiences. Wessel said someone who was stopped for running a stop sign might wonder why the police aren’t out taking care of larger issues than traffic citations, but someone who was the victim of negligent driving might disagree.
“I think there is a different expectation of law enforcement for every person,” Wessel said. “There’s someone doing every little thing, but it’s hard for the public to necessarily see the big picture at any given time.”
Police departments have different units for various areas like traffic, drug arrests and schools. Officers combat high pressure and dangerous situations on a regular basis. Wessel said law enforcement officers find a need to speak freely about emotional encounters and stressful environments.
“It’s huge to have someone you can talk with, whether that’s professional or whether it’s family or a loved one,” Wessel said. “You can’t bottle some of this stuff up inside.”
In addition, Wessel said it’s important for officers to do activities outside their job.
“The most important thing is to not let it be your entire life,” Wessel said. “For me, it’s totally family. I like to be boating, skiing, riding motorcycles and doing all kinds of things that have nothing to do with law enforcement.”
In 2014, after being involved in two shootings in two weeks, Wessel’s wife encouraged him to apply as SRO at NIC.
As an SRO, Wessel spends a majority of his time patrolling campus, participating in trainings and helping students interested in a career in law enforcement. He is also actively involved with campus safety programs such as the Green Dot bystander awareness training.
“The thing I love about [Green Dot] is that we push out students every year, and then those students will go out and get jobs in the community and positively affect more than just the college campus,” Wessel said. “We want to give people the tools and ability to actively prevent and dissuade any form of personal power-based violence.”
Wessel’s role is to actively assist with training, which allows him to work directly with students.
“Most of what I deal with is more people in crisis,” Wessel said. “Ultimately, my primary job is if bad guy comes here, take care of bad guy, but realistically it’s a lot more helping people who are looking into law enforcement as a career.”
Wessel is in charge of overseeing and following up on any emergency responses on campus.
“Working with Gus has been a true pleasure,” said Alex Harris, director of Title IX, Student Conduct and Security at NIC. “His level of expertise and training is a valuable asset to our students and employees.”
Harris said it is important to have a police officer on campus who can respond to incidents within seconds and work behind the scenes to keep the college community safe.
As a public servant, Wessel said he thinks honesty and integrity should be overarching themes in a person’s character.
“I think what it comes down to for me is self-awareness,” Wessel said. “You have to understand why and what you’re doing at all times.”
To his knowledge, Wessel is still the only SRO officer at a two-year college in the U.S.
“Our NIC campus is just like a subset of the Coeur d’Alene community, so it makes sense to have a police officer here who can also respond quickly and help ensure the safety of our NIC family,” said Graydon Stanley, vice president for Student Services. “Gus is ideally suited for this role as he has the skills of a highly trained law enforcement officer, complemented by the heart and attitude of an NIC family member.
