Mitchellville officers demonstrate heat safety

It was noon and the temperature already had reached almost 80 degrees. The sun was out and blazed through the rolled up windows of a police cruiser in the parking lot of the Mitchellville elementary school.

It all would seem normal except for one thing: Two police officers were in the car and promised to stay there for 30 minutes to show the dangers of leaving children and pets locked inside a car on a hot summer's day.

In less than nine minutes, the read-out on the thermometer inside the car read 97 degrees. It would read 104 degrees in another six minutes.

Mitchellville Police Chief Kary Kinmoth said the exercise held last Wednesday was a reminder and a warning to people who think they can leave children or pets in the car during hot summer days.

"A typical (grocery store) run last about 15 minutes," Kinmoth said. "We want to show what can happen to a body in 15 minutes and beyond."

Matt Cleverley, who served as the EMT on the scene just in case something happened to the officers, said in 15 minutes temperatures inside a car can increase close to 15-20 degrees, which has some nasty effects on the human body.

"The body will eventually lose its ability to cool itself down," Cleverly said. "This happens ever faster in children, who don't have a fully developed system yet."

The EMT said the body will stop sweating, experience dizziness, tingling and as its core temperature rises, it could possibly incur heat stroke.

The two police officers, school resource officer Jeremy Stevenson and patrol officer Derrick Spoerry, lasted the full 30 minutes inside the car, with the interior temperature reaching close to 110 degrees. Fifteen minutes into the exercise the officers' phones stopped working due to the heat, as did recording equipment put in the patrol car to record their reactions.

"This raises public awareness," said Stevenson. "It's to let people know how fast the temperature rises and to warn against the extreme temperature changes."

Stevenson also said the visual shows people what actually happens if a person is left in a car.

"A lot of people need to see what happens," he said. "They need the visual."

Kinmoth said the police department will cut the video it took down to a couple minutes and put it online so that people can see what happens.

"We tell people all the time that this is a bad idea," he said. "Now, we're kicking it up a notch and showing them what we're talking about."