Editorial: Schaumburg scandal cleanup a job well done
Nineteen criminal drug cases dropped.
About $1.33 million spent to settle 16 lawsuits claiming false arrest, illegal search or malicious prosecution.
Another $147,000 for a consultant aimed at cleaning up a police department rocked by the arrests of three Schaumburg undercover officers on charges they stole cocaine and marijuana from dealers and police seizures and resold the drugs on the street through an informant.
Three and a half years after a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation led to the arrests of former officers Terrance O'Brien, John Cichy, and Matthew Hudak, Schaumburg has almost finished paying. Cichy's criminal trial remains, but O'Brien and Hudak are serving sentences that should keep them in prison for at least a dozen years.
Picking up the pieces hasn't been easy, or cheap or quick. We credit Schaumburg's leaders with, among other things, sticking with a long program of changes intended to make sure no such malfeasance will happen again.
We also challenge Schaumburg's leaders to stay vigilant. As much as it would be a relief to declare this episode over, its lessons are far too valuable to just move on.
The case broke in January 2013. Then-Schaumburg Village Manager Ken Fritz and Mayor Al Larson followed a policy of openness from the beginning and seemed to grasp what it would take to rebuild the community's trust, especially after a separate cloud involving allegations then-Police Chief Brian Howerton had harassed a former girlfriend. No charges were filed in that case, and Howerton retired that April.
The village board quickly hired the firm of Hillard Heintze to propose changes in the police force.
Governments sometimes hire consultants as a smoke screen to avoid action. But Hillard Heintze came back with more than 50 changes, and the village started checking them off. It got rid of the Special Investigations Bureau the three arrested officers had belonged to and instead created a regional task force. It OK'd two lieutenant jobs to supervise officers more closely. It added random drug testing for officers involved in drug enforcement. It hired Chief James Lamkin, the former St. Charles chief, to reverse what Hillard Heintze called a "a deficiency in management."
It turns out the timing might have been fortuitous. Nationwide scrutiny of police procedures and relationships with their communities are forcing police agencies to tighten their operations and be more accountable. Schaumburg, to its credit, has a big head start.