Not-so-mean streets Pediatrician moonlights as small-town polic

THORNTON, Ill. -- Nick Stamat's other life gets little notice in Thornton. When he works its quiet streets -- patrolling a small town best known for its huge quarry -- he is known only as Officer Stamat.

Only a few ask about the name tag on his policeman's blue uniform, the one that says "Doc" Stamat.

"I'm sure most people do not realize he is a medical doctor," said Phil Arnold, Thornton's police chief since 1999.

With Stamat's unassuming style, some may be surprised to learn he works as a pediatrician. His practice is part of the five clinics in Meyer Medical Physicians Group; he is one of its eight owner/directors.

Just how does a doctor end up working part time on the not-so-mean streets of Thornton?

After all, major crime rarely hits the town of 2,800. Its 10 full-time and six part-time officers usually hand out traffic tickets and seat belt citations, check out an occasional bicycle theft or help people locked out of a car.

When nearby suburb Harvey needed help rebuilding its dwindling police force, Stamat was willing to pitch in, usually working a Tuesday night patrol with Arnold. Stamat came with experience: He was a full-time police officer in the mid-1970s, but he grew tired of working staggered 10-hour shifts, a schedule that put him on afternoons one day, nights the next. He had a bachelor's degree in biology and chemistry and decided to attend medical school at the University of Athens in Greece.

Medical knowledge handy

Years later, Stamat returned to part-time work as a Harvey officer "because I think it's something important. People take police work for granted. It's a job people do to help people, which is what I do as a doctor."

Stamat's expertise came in handy a few times: He helped a man shot in the leg during a drive-by. Another time, it was a child hit by a car. And he was there when an elderly woman went into shock after an apartment was raided.

Stamat said that he shares his chief's fondness for work in Thornton.

"It's absolutely shocking you can find a town of this size, that's a suburb of Chicago, where everybody knows everybody else. It's a small, well-knit community," Stamat said.