Citizens inquired about cop cars congregated around Southwestern Michigan College’s Mathews Conference Center West Oct. 22-24.

Not to worry.

The 16 people gathered inside included some police officers, but they were there from as far away as Loyola University Chicago, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the LaGrange County, Ind., Sheriff’s Department as students while SMC hosted 30 hours of trainer training.

RAD IT, short for Rape Aggression Defense Instructor Training, was led by Candace Dorsey, a crime prevention police officer with Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, and Eleshia Evans, an investigator with Wayne State University Police Department in Detroit. Dorsey taught Evans in 2007.

The RAD system teaches women defensive concepts and techniques against various types of assault using martial arts tactics.

It begins with awareness, prevention, risk reduction and avoidance and progresses to basics of self-defense training.

SMC provides a comprehensive three-session RAD course to female students at no cost, but it is a credit course at some universities.

“We’ve been teaching RAD for 17 years,” Dorsey said. “We started out with the free RAD program, which is a nine- or 12-hour block of instruction. Since then, we moved to teaching it as a one-credit course on campus fall, winter and spring semesters.”

“It’s been very helpful,” said one of two female officers from Chicago. “It’s been a lot more information than I expected. It’s a very accelerated program. These are all new techniques geared toward women, which is a very big help.”

“I used to work in residence halls, giving self-defense classes. We wanted a more substantive presentation and found RAD,” Dorsey said. “Some have never had any kind of physical training before, but the program is designed for any woman who can do the skills to come in fresh.”

“(Campus Security Coordinator) Denis Burns (and Vice President for Student Services Eileen Crouse) went through my IT class two to three years ago,” Dorsey said. “(Dowagiac Public Safety Director Steve Grinnewald) contacted me to see if they could host a class here, so we put it together. Any IT class I’ve done, we’ve had people from two hours away to five or eight hours away. If you Google ‘women’s self-defense,’ RAD pops up.

“Because I’m an instructor trainer for the RAD organization, I can go wherever and teach class. These folks will be instructors, teaching in their respective jurisdictions. They can become certified instructor trainers who go to various locations out of their jurisdictions and teach the class. Eleshia is actually meeting her requirements to become an instructor trainer.”

Wayne State’s RAD program is 14 years old. Evans joined seven years ago.

“There are a lot of different programs within RAD,” Dorsey said. “They have RAD for seniors, RAD for men, kids’ RAD, aerosol, which is pepper spray, keychain, weapons and advanced. It’s evolved quite a ways in 17 years. There’s domestic violence for RAD and crime prevention.”

Evans said because Wayne State is in midtown, officers’ paychecks come from its Board of Governors, but they also get sworn as Detroit officers “so we can handle stuff off-campus. We cover about four square miles,” including the Wayne State University Medical School and Detroit Medical Center, a hospital with more than 2,000 licensed beds, 3,000 affiliated physicians and more than 12,000 employees.

“We cover the surrounding area because a lot of our students live off-campus,” Evans said. “We will respond to any call in our area. We’ve got about 60 sworn officers and a lot of cross-over. We have (Michigan State Police), Wayne County Sheriff, Detroit, us, three hospitals and two firehouses in our area.”

“Wayne State already had RAD when I arrived in 2005,” Evans said. “I’m big into defensive tactics and protecting women. It’s empowering. We’ve gone from teaching it once a semester to almost once a month with a core team of 10.”

Tribal Police Officer Eric Shaer and Jessica Getz of the behavioral health office represented the Pokagon Band.

“I’m the community resource officer, so we’re hoping to implement a community resource program working with Dowagiac and SMC until we can get everything we need to do our own,” Shaer said. “We’d like to offer it to tribal members at our community center” on Dailey Road, just south of the college’s Dowagiac campus.

The college contributed three students from its own staff: Lead Admissions Advisor Kim Luthringer, who graduated in SMC’s second Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) class last March; Community Outreach Coordinator Brent Brewer from the Niles Campus; and Business Office Staff Accountant Stephanie Lyons.

Niles was well-represented with Troopers Rob Herbstreith and Holly Tetro from the Michigan State Police post and three women from the City of Niles Police Department, which is also considering forming its own program.