Illinois suburban police are being asked to volunteer and help Chicago in the event that possible city police officer shortages lead to critical situations, according to a report.
Public Relations officer John Fermon said the Bloomington Police Department has five or fewer officers on the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) team.
A coordinator from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System sent an email to a dozen police officials across the state requesting they ask members of their specialized units whether they could respond to dangerous situations in Chicago, and how fast they could get there, Chicago’s WGN-TV reported.
“There are usually reciprocity agreements already in place for city’s who share borders, which is likely what they mean by asking suburban cities for help,” said Fermon. “For example, Normal PD, Bloomington PD, the McLean County Sheriff’s Office and the Illinois State Police can and/or will help each other out, in our area, if needed which includes handling calls for service, reports, etc.”
Fermon said it would be harder going outside the county because there’s different court systems and State’s Attorneys.
“Not knowing their policies or core processes,” said Fermon. “Each department has a different policy for different things. For temporary times, like for a few hours we can do that. Like for example, I did that for Logan County when I worked there and they asked us to handle their calls for an hour. That isn’t unheard of but it is temporary. None of the officers would volunteer, they would be on duty to get paid as a normal police officer.”
Fermon said a Normal violation of any kind would fall under reciprocity, but if an officer is in a marked squad car in Chicago and pulls someone over for say running a ‘Stop’ sign that it is usually frowned upon.
Bloomington is not considered a “suburban area” and Fermon said he doesn’t think it will impact the BPD.
“We have a general order where the department has to get approval before you do security or off-duty deployment. The city isn’t going to incur that liability. It would have to be an overtime detail organized by the city to send our police officers somewhere else. I don’t know if anybody would do that. I would be interested to see if anybody does that,” said Fermon.
Kane County Sheriff Ron Hain said he would not send officers to Chicago unless an officer is under direct duress because he cannot support this “slanted agenda.”
Could a cop go ‘rogue’ and volunteer anyways?
“Could you imagine being a police officer and going there off duty…you couldn’t be in your city of Bloomington uniform,’ said Fermon. “The Cook County Sheriffs office would have to deputize officers to patrol. The department would have to approve of that additional job even if you aren’t getting paid.”
The city’s statement about the COVID Vaccine: At this time, the City does not have a vaccine mandate. While we anticipate formal requirements coming down from OSHA that may apply to our police department, those are not in place yet. The City does monitor our internal COVID-19 cases and those are currently very low.
The BPD’s union is: PBPA Unit 21.
Governor J.B. Pritzker is offering the services of the ISP and the Illinois National Guard in the event that there are police officer shortages resulting for the COVID-19 vaccinate mandate.
Chicago’s police officers union called on members last Wednesday to defy an order to report their vaccination status by Friday.
The union is suing the city for what it calls a violation of its collective bargaining agreement, and the city is suing the union arguing that their leader’s call to ignore an order was illegal.
