Memorial, Elkhart General seek compassion in police, security applicants

Memorial Hospital security officer Ron Goze was on an early morning mobile patrol, checking on Beacon Health System properties around downtown South Bend, when he saw a man sprawled across a set of stairs near an alley.

The man appeared to be dead, prompting Goze to call 911. As a former police officer, his mind raced with what he should do next with a homicide victim. Take photos. Tape off the scene.

But as he nudged the man’s foot, Goze noticed his eyes rolling back in his head. He saw a syringe in his hand and a burnt spoon lying on the ground next to him.

Goze reached for his Narcan, the drug that can reverse the effects of opiate overdose in emergency situations, and administered two doses. By the time emergency responders arrived, the man was sitting up, alive.

“It was amazing because it was the first time I had seen the effects of Narcan,” said Goze, 50, in his sixth year on Memorial’s Security Police Department. “It’s truly a miracle drug for people in that situation. God gets the credit for that because it was just being in the right place at the right time. I could have taken a different turn, gone to get a pop, someone could have stopped and asked me something, but everything fell right into place.”

Goze wasn’t the first or last Memorial police or security officer to notch a “Narcan save.” The department’s officers have been carrying Narcan since 2019 under a partnership with Memorial Team Pharmacy. He’s also not alone in displaying a trait, compassion, that’s critical for the job, said department Chief Craig Whitfield.

Whitfield, facing the same hiring and retention challenges that many employers have encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic, is looking for more people like Goze to fill some open police and security positions.

“If you like to help people, this is the place to be,” Whitfield said. “It might be something simple. You might just be walking down the hallway and someone has a panicked look on their face. They just got the call. Their dad’s dying and they need to get to the room. We take them right to the room and they appreciate it because they got there in time, because if they had to look for it, they wouldn’t have got there in time. You only get one shot at that.”

Patients and visitors likely know that Memorial employs security officers, but many might not realize that those individuals work out of a “Security Police Department.” In 2014, under a 2013 Indiana law allowing hospitals to establish police departments, Memorial became the state’s second hospital to begin doing so. There are now about 20 hospitals with their own police, Whitfield said.

Like police at city, town and county departments, Memorial’s police recruits spend eight weeks at the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield. Once on the job, they carry a gun and handcuffs, and have full arrest powers on Beacon Health System properties. Elkhart General Hospital …

Craig Whitfield, chief, Memorial Hospital Security & Police Department

Whitfield, who retired after 25 years on the Mishawaka Police Department, said he would like to hire some officers who are retiring from area police departments because they could immediately fill open police positions without needing to be trained first.

“Of course, they’d have to be a good fit here,” Whitfield said. “We have the Beacon values of trust, respect, integrity and compassion, and you have to hit on all those key points.”

The department helps South Bend police investigate shootings and stabbings when victims are brought to Memorial’s trauma center. As the region’s only Level II trauma center, Memorial had been averaging 120 to 130 such cases annually, but saw about 170 last year, Whitfield said.

Hospital police patrol beyond the main campus to include all Beacon properties, downtown and in Granger. But for the most part, it’s a “controlled environment” in which officers make far fewer arrests than at traditional police departments.

“The younger officer, they probably want to be a crime fighter,” Whitfield said. “If you’re looking to stop cars and do all that, arrest drunks, you’re not in the right place. But if you want to help people, which is protect and serve, then this is a great place to be. You can work where you’re appreciated, it’s a controlled environment, but there’s still plenty of challenges to keep over 2 million square feet safe.”

At Beacon’s Elkhart General Hospital, security director Terry Cochran is looking to fill one security position. Cochran said his staff contains about 225 years of law enforcement, military and jail officer experience within its ranks.

“My staff and I do a lot of proactive recruiting with past employers, like county jails, military and area police departments,” Cochran said. “We have found that keeping a close working relationship with those agencies has opened the door for future security officers at Elkhart General.”

Interested in learning more?

Memorial has posted several part-time and full-time security and police officer positions. The full-time positions, on evening and night shifts, offer $1,000 sign-on bonuses. For more information, call Whitfield, Memorial’s chief of police and director of security, at 574-647-7311.