Just as hospitals specialize in certain types of care, suburban police departments should become experts in solving certain types of crimes, then share their resources, a panel examining the Brown’s Chicken & Pasta killings is expected to recommend.
The group of outside experts has been examining how police handled the investigation of the still-unsolved 1993 killings of seven people in the Palatine restaurant.
But the panel, brought together by the Better Government Association and the Chicago Crime Commission, also has used the case as an opportunity to review the broader issue of how suburban police can better do their jobs.
After more than a year of investigation, the panel is expected to recommend a regional sharing of police resources when it releases its report, perhaps as early as this week.
Sources said that one of the specific recommendations will be for neighboring police departments to specialize in solving certain types of crimes.
Palatine, for example, would perform its regular duties but also develop a specialty in solving arsons, building expertise in the prevention and apprehension of offenders through a program of intensive training of officers.
This, along with development of computerized information on known arsonists, would identify Palatine as a resource bank that could assist police throughout the northwest suburbs.
Meanwhile, Des Plaines, could develop similar resources for residential burglaries. And still other towns could marshal resource banks to combat crimes such as auto theft rings and sex crimes.
“Everyone stands to win with this approach,” said one member of the Brown’s panel, who asked not to be identified. “The suburbs develop a shared expertise and an experience factor without breaking their budgets.”
In addition, the patrol, laboratory and computer capabilities of the Cook County Sheriff’s Police Department and Illinois State Police would be integrated into this network of responsibility.
Officials in each suburb would have to approve such a proposal. So the panel also is expected to strongly urge suburban officials to take a much more active role in overseeing their police departments.
In particular, according to sources, the panel is expected to recommend that village officials take regular inventory of police needs and make sure those needs are addressed, instead of simply approving annual budget requests with no questions asked.
The panel’s proposals received a mixed reaction from suburban leaders and law-enforcement officials. Some said they were intrigued by the idea but also questioned the practicality of dividing up criminal expertise by police department.
“Say a department specializes in financial fraud; there’s so much of that that you would have the whole department handling the whole county’s fraud cases–and you’d still need more people,” said Elmhurst Police Chief John Millner, a former president of the Midwest Homicide Investigators Association.
“But if it was a crime that was very unlikely, like terrorism, he wouldn’t be working at all.”
Schaumburg village manager George Longmeyer added: “In the short term, no department has a problem loaning someone for their expertise–we do it all the time. But wait a minute, I can’t give you this guy for a year. That’s a whole other ballgame.
“And how do I get reimbursed? What if I spend $150,000 on a piece of equipment and everybody uses it?”
As for more Village Board oversight of police, some officials argued that such a relationship already exists and shouldn’t go further.
For example, many elected officials are encouraged to go on ride-alongs with police or to participate in citizen police academies. In meetings with neighborhood groups, trustees may hear citizen complaints and convey them to police chiefs.
“But I don’t know too many elected officials that have a background in police work, so I don’t believe there should be micro-management of police cases,” said Palatine Mayor Rita Mullins.
Through the budget process, village leaders already help police departments shape policy, Longmeyer said.
“We give direction on where we want our resources allocated,” he said. “For example, you may have elected officials who say they want to get into community policing. You ask the chief to look at a program and see how to implement it here.”
