Lakemoor police candidates face stricter hiring procedures

The help wanted postings for full- and part-time police officers in Lakemoor are straightforward, listing the qualifications, salary and other particulars.

What's unusual is the purpose.

Applicants are not being sought for current openings but to build a standard eligibility list — the first time in the history of the little town that flanks Route 120 and straddles Lake and McHenry counties.

The existence of the list is an indication not only of growth but also of an ongoing effort to professionalize operations, village officials say.

“You can't just hire anybody who applies. There are procedures,” said Ron Geary, a former Wauconda police sergeant and chairman of Lakemoor's fire and police commission, which was created last fall.

“In the past, you came in and filled out an application,” Geary said. “You could be anybody.”

About two dozen applications have been taken since being made available June 1, he said. Applications will be accepted until July 11 when there will be an orientation for the testing process.

Communities under 5,000 population can't have police and fire commissions and officers can't participate in pension funding, Police Chief William Kushner said.

That changed last spring when the village's population, according to the 2010 census, was certified at 6,017 and state law requiring a commission and procedures for an eligibility list kicked in, he said.

Before the list was initiated, the village board made the hiring decisions. While only certified police officers were accepted as candidates, standards weren't as stringent and there was no way to vet candidates.

“Hiring was pretty much done at will and at whim,” said Kushner, who served 29 years on the Chicago Police Department and four years as chief in Berwyn before joining Lakemoor in November 2010.

Several officers were laid off before he started but that was because of budget considerations, Mayor Todd Weihofen said.

“The nice thing with the testing is it takes it out of the hands of elected officials,” he said. “We've raised the standards by going to the testing and eligibility.”

But it comes at a cost as the village also has to fund pensions for police, which the state has estimated to total about $1 million over the next 10 years. The village in the current budget set aside $145,000 toward future pensions.

“We did not pass a tax levy for it,” Village Administrator David Alarcon said. “The village board ended up deciding to cut costs in other areas.”

A pension board, which is separate from the police and fire commission, has been seated and is studying investment policies but has not yet met.

Kushner said the old hiring system did not have opportunities for veterans or residents, for example, who wanted to be a police officer. Under the new rules, candidates who are not already certified as police officers will learn from the ground up.

Those candidates would have six months of classroom work followed by a certifying exam, six months of field training and then would be on probation for another six months.

“It's a huge step toward professionalism of the agency,” Kushner said. “The more we can do, the better face we can put on the department, the better the community will respond.”

The force has nine full-time sworn officers, including Kushner, and six part-timers. He said he is focusing on customer-based policing, and officers are less argumentative and antagonistic and more helpful.

The changes are part of what village officials say is an ongoing effort to improve the community on various fronts.

The police department, for example, earlier this year moved its headquarters out of a double-wide trailer on Route 120 to a bigger building the village bought in an industrial park near Route 12.

Most of the activity for Lakemoor police is traffic-related, though there have been some narcotics investigations, Kushner said. The type of needed service could change if the area near routes 120 and 12 develops.

“My long range vision for this agency, based upon the population growth, it's not without the realm of possibility this department could be doubled,” he said.