PHOTOS: Sgt. Bryan DeYoung Retires from Burr Ridge Police Department

Sgt. Bryan DeYoung will retire from the Department on March 28, 2012 after 24 years. DeYoung's father, Don, founded the department in 1968, and Sgt. DeYoung was able to work with his father for three years. before Don DeYoung retired.

Sgt. DeYoung has been a member of a multi-jurisdictional SWAT team for nine years and has trained numerous police officers during that time. He co-founded the Burr Ridge Citizen's Police Academy with Officer Angie Zucchero in 1998.

"There's been a DeYoung with the department since it's inception," said Deputy Chief Tim Vaclav. "[Sgt. DeYoung's] been a go-to guy for the department. He's a mentor to officers he's in charge of and a resource for his peers and supervisors. He's had a good career here in Burr Ridge."

Sgt. DeYoung shared memories of his time in with Patch in a Q & A.

Q: What made you want to become a police officer?

A: My father had been a policeman for 35 years—23 years as chief in Burr Ridge ... It was in my blood, and I felt the calling.

Q: Why did you choose Burr Ridge as the place to spend your career?

A: I started in Lansing, Illinois for the first two years, and I came back to Burr Ridge ... It was the history and the knowledge of the department and the fact that my father was here. I really wanted to work for my dad before he retired ... I thought Burr Ridge was a good community to spend my career in.

Q: As you look back at your career, are there any specific cases that stand out in your mind?

A: Two of them really stand out…one started out as something very simple. It was a stolen bicycle call. The description the lady had given of the guy who had stolen the bike was very good. It reminded me of a drug user in the area that we were very well acquainted with. The description fit him to a T. We showed up at his house, and he started shooting at us from the house—he was high on drugs. He did the steal the bike. It was in the house ... He couldn’t see the officers [surrounding the house,] and and when he tried to escape through the back, he ran into a bunch of officers.

Q: And the other case?

A husband had shot wife and adult son. Two young officers and myself arrived on the scene. We got into the house, did a quick peek. We were in a utility room that we could get into from the outside. The son was laying on the floor in the back … shot five times. His wife's head was in a puddle of blood. She had been shot in the face ... but still managed to dial 911 ... I told the guys, "We have to find the shooter." As I turned to them, I could tell they had not experienced this before. Their eyes were bright and wide, but they performed exceptionally as usual. We located the gunman. He had taken his own life. It must have happened as we pulled up. The ambulance came and treated [the wife and son.] Both of them lived, and they’re still living to this today.

Q: You have been with the department for 24 years and trained numerous officers for the multi-jurisdictional SWAT team. What is the one piece of advice you would leave for the next generation?

A: When you get into a volatile situation, take a deep breath and try to keep your mind clear. Don’t let the adrenaline take you over, because you’re going to get an adrenaline dump when you get into a volatile situation. Training is important ... the better you are trained, the better you are going to be able to adapt to situations. If you are poorly trained, your response or your actions are going to be poor.

Q: Police officers encounter numerous difficult situations on the job. What were the most difficult parts of the job for you?

A: The cases that are the most difficult ... ones in which you are making notification that someone had died ... any kind of crime against a child. A child hits home. We had an incident in town where a child was run over by a school bus. That was extremely difficult, hard on all the officers there.

Q: How do you get through those tough cases?

A: You stay focused on the job the task at hand. That’s how all officers get through the really bad parts, whether it’s a suicide, or a death, or decomposed body—as long as you keep focused on the task at hand, you can’t think of anything else but doing the job that you have to do.

Q: Are there any cases that stand out in your mind as being ones that make you say, "It's cases like this that make it all worth it"?

A: There was  party in our town. On one of our busy streets, there was a young man walking with a couple of girls to a car after the party on the edge of the street. Someone drove by and struck the young man, throwing him 50 feet in the air up against a fence. He broke his back.

Subsequently, the driver was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs ... I was not the arresting officer, but the arresting officer ... called me in to assist. I was able to determine that the driver had a condition known as horizontal gaze nystagmus ... [which helped determine that] he had taken medication in his system where he should not have been driving ...

The young man and his family sued [the driver] for medical bills. I had to testify at the civil court down at the Daley center. They called me in as an expert witness, and I spent three hours just testifying on that portion [about the horizontal gaze nystagmus.] The plaintiff ended up winning the case.

Later on, his mother came up to me when I was at a gas station, and said, "You don’t know who I am, but I just wanted to thank you."

The young man healed, and worked out and told me he wanted to become a policeman because of my testimony at the civil case. To this day, he works for the secret service.

Q: What are you most looking forward to in retirement?

A: I’m looking forward to spending some time with my wife. When you work different shifts as far as midnights and afternoons, it takes away a lot from the family life—especially when you have young kids who have baseball games and basketball games that you have to miss. It bothers you a lot to miss it, but you understand that it’s part of the job ... I'm excited to spend time with my kids and grandkids.

Sgt. Young's last day on the job will be March 27. He has sold his home in Illinois, and he and his wife are planning to move to Fort Wayne immediately afterwards to be with his son, daughter in law and his three grandchildren—one boy two girls.