The FBI is proposing a permanent joint task force with west suburban police departments that would concentrate on locating suspects charged with violent crimes who have fled the area.
The task force would be the first of its kind in the Midwest involving federal and suburban law-enforcement officials.
The plan comes in the wake of special projects involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation and suburban police departments, such as a 3-year probe into organized crime and gambling in Du Page County and the nearly yearlong investigation into the Brown’s Chicken & Pasta murders in Palatine.
“Task forces are the way of the future for law-enforcement agencies on all levels,” FBI Special Agent Roy Lane recently told the Du Page County Police Chiefs Association.
“The goal is not to take anything away from the local police, but to offer them what we do best on a consistent basis,” said Lane, who is in charge of the FBI’s Lisle office.
The FBI is moving next week into new offices in Lisle, doubling its size, “hopefully to have room for these types of task forces,” Lane said.
Law-enforcement officials in Du Page, west Cook, Kane and Kendall Counties are being surveyed about the proposed fugitive task force, Lane said.
Normally, the FBI cannot involve itself in local crimes.
“But if we believe suspects in a serious crime-a murder, a rape, an armed robbery-have left the area, they can be charged with the federal crime of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, and the FBI can get involved,” Lane said.
For example, the FBI is involved in seeking a Du Page-area fugitive for the Addison police. Geno Macri, 22, is accused in the Aug. 14 rape and beating death of Maria Rose Djordjic in her apartment.
Macri is believed to have stolen the victim’s car, which was found in New York City. FBI and local police say they believe Macri is hiding in New York.
If the task force concept is welcomed by police in the western collar counties, Lane said more such cooperative efforts could be created in the southern or northern suburbs or to meet special needs, such as a suburban-federal task force on gang crimes.
Special Agent Robert Long, spokesman for the Chicago FBI office, said the federal agency has five permanent task forces involving the Chicago police, the U.S. marshal’s office and the Cook County sheriff’s police. The task forces deal with fugitives, violent crimes, terrorism, organized crime and Asian gangs.
“There are things that a federal agency like the FBI can do better, and there are things that local police-Chicago or suburbs-can do better,” Long said.
He said the FBI is known for its national criminal records, “but when we need quick information on the street, it has worked out well to have a Chicago police detective on a task force who can call up a patrol officer on the streets and ask him questions direct.”
If the west suburban fugitive task force becomes a reality, it would be patterned after the Chicago fugitive task force, which has helped in the arrest of 80 people in the last few years, officials said.
Du Page police chiefs also are studying a proposal to create a task force of suburban police specialists who would be called in to deal with major crimes anywhere in the county.
“We vigorously support the FBI in this effort,” said Glendale Heights Police Chief James Carroll, president of the Du Page Police Chiefs Association. “Violent crime is rising, and what was once a threat is now a reality.
“By combining the mutual strengths of the suburbs and the FBI, we can develop a formidable force.”
