Slowly, things are looking up in Fox Lake
When something like the tragic death of Fox Lake Lt. Charles Joseph Gliniewicz happens, ancillary damage gets flung out, like shrapnel, from the point of impact.
Among the people and organizations in the line of fire is the Village of Fox Lake itself. The village leadership has had to face uncomfortable questions - how a police lieutenant with a spotty personnel record could steal at least "five figures" worth of funds from the Explorer program; how those thefts could have gone on for years without detection; how he could have amassed professional law enforcement equipment well beyond the scope of a Scout program; committed egregious acts of unprofessional conduct and been the subject of a scathing letter from his colleagues in 2009 that apparently was deep-sixed.
The village is making progress in answering those questions. And, as the investigation into the depth of Gliniewicz's thefts continues and the scope of the problem will not be known for some time, village officials have already started to make some changes.
As Lee Filas reports today, the village is pushing ahead with reforms that Administrator Anne Marrin says will eventually "right the ship," return accountability to every level of the police department and result in professional-grade law enforcement.
We say, glad to hear it.
We're also glad to hear the Marrin and her staff are being assisted by the Lake County Sheriff's Office, which has provided Fox Lake an interim police chief in Deputy Chief Mike Keller and an interim deputy chief in Sgt. Scot Kurek.
It's never easy to repair a boat already out on the water, and that's what Fox Lake is charged with doing here - keep the department operating while it's under a microscope and could be facing major changes.
Keller and Kurek are the law enforcement experts; Marrin is the administrative expert.
That the team got a vote of confidence this week from the police department's rank and file is another indicator they are on the right track.
Bill Monsen, president of the Fox Lake FOP local, released a statement saying the union's 19 members embrace the accountability being instituted by Marrin, and they support the efforts of Keller and Kurek to clean up the department.
"Lt. Gliniewicz's actions are an insult to the integrity, honor and pride that each member of the Fox Lake Police Department brings to the job each and every day," it reads. Indeed.
The process will be long, hard and in some instances, sad. But the village is turning the corner toward renewed respectability. That is something to celebrate, anyway.