2 faces of IUPD lieutenant: Officer by day, rock star by night

With a shotgun in hand, IU Police Department Lt. Jerry Minger waits in the garage for hours with his team, concealed by the darkness. It is his first mission as part of the Critical Incident Response Team, which uses most of the same training as a SWAT team. \nThe man who owns the garage is heavily armed, and the night before, he took his wife hostage. She escaped the house earlier in the night, when her husband passed out momentarily from intoxication. The CIRT has been informed that he is leaving for a gun show in the morning, and they wait in the garage to take him by surprise. \n"You could only see our eyes; we were covered entirely in black," Minger said. "He was so surprised when he walked into that garage."\nThe black swarm quickly disarmed the man, who later could not believe he had been busted by a team featuring university police. \n"It's typical," Minger said. "People look at university police as kiddy cops, or glorified babysitters, but we deal with all manners of crime here."\nA member of the first incident response team in the county is just one of the many positions Minger has held during his more than 30 years of experience with IUPD. Although he no longer conducts high-risk CIRT missions, Minger's "alter ego" outside IUPD still provides him with plenty of thrills. When not acting as IUPD's Technical Service Coordinator or spending time with his family, Minger plays guitar and banjo for Justin Case, a bluegrass/classic rock band.\nMinger's career in music actually began long before his interest in police work took hold. He has played guitar since age 14 and actually began college in Vincennes with plans to become an elementary school music teacher, Minger said. He later moved to Bloomington, where he decided to enroll in the IU Police Academy in 1972.\n"After I moved to Bloomington, I realized this community was where I wanted to stay," Minger said. "I wasn't sure about the job prospects in the elementary music field, so I decided a great way to stay in the community and work was police work."\nDespite changing his career from music to police work, Minger kept playing guitar and singing. His music career includes a stint playing guitar in Bobby Helms' backup band. Helms is most known for writing the song "Jingle Bell Rock."\nMinger also played for a band called Route 37 before becoming part of Justin Case, which is the band he has played in for the last 16 years.\nIUPD Detective Greg McClure, one of Minger's colleagues, has seen a few of Justin Case's shows. \n"They're pretty good," McClure said, "and they definitely keep working (to get better)."\nJustin Case frequently plays at the Port Hole Inn on Lake Lemon. The band is usually scheduled every other weekend during the summer and about once a month when things slow down in the winter, said Karen Hollcraft, an employee at the Port Hole Inn. She added that the regular crowd around Lake Lemon always shows up for Justin Case's gigs, while the band also brings a crowd that includes family, friends and colleagues.\n"They're great," Hollcraft said. "They joke around with the crowd and get everyone going. I really enjoy them."\n-- Contact staff writer Mike \nWilson at mhwilson@indiana.edu.