Rolling Meadows making police station open to public 24 hours a day

The Rolling Meadows police station should be manned and available to the public around the clock before the end of the year, Police Chief David Scanlan said Tuesday.

The station has been closed to the public except during city hall hours since the spring of 2009, when the city dropped its own police dispatch service and joined Northwest Central Dispatch System.

Recent modifications to the front lobby of city hall allowed anyone seeking police help in off hours to get inside the building and use a telephone. However, the phone connects to Northwest Central, which is off site and does not handle some types of nonemergency calls.

With the front desk unmanned, residents have complained they cannot contact police to get permission for overnight parking. Scanlan also is concerned about officers booking arrestees with no one available to watch the process.

"Rolling Meadows residents are used to calling here or showing up at the front door and talking to a warm body," Scanlan told city aldermen Tuesday. "We will be more customer friendly. We wanted to do it from day one, and we knew it was an issue, but we're not big enough."

The department's three records staff members, five community service officers and two part-time police assistants will be reassigned to cover desk hours at the station, Scanlan said.

When there is a staff member at the desk, he or she will be able to watch the lobby through a video camera and let residents into the station or tell a police officer who is on the way what is happening. Sometimes officers will be immediately available because they are in the station doing paperwork, Scanlan said.

Digitizing records and changing records systems is making the change possible. The staff will be able to man the desk, monitor radio traffic, and during slow times work on records, Scanlan said.

The chief said he also instituted a community policing program where residents will know officers have been in the area because they are leaving notes on garages when they see doors left open or cars if they are left unlocked or with valuables in sight.