Starting Riverwoods Police from scratch

On Oct. 31, 2001, the first Riverwoods police squad car began patrolling village streets.

Chief Morris Weinstein, who had taken over the department a month before, was more than a little nervous.

"While I could design the formal structure of the department, the informal structure took a lot longer to figure out," he said. "When basic questions about how things are always done come up, you can't ask the old timer because there was no old timer."

Over the next month, Hainesville will experience similar growing pains.

Tuesday, the village voted to form a police department and have it up and running by Feb. 10, when Hainesville's contentious contract relationship with the Round Lake Park Police Department ends after eight years. By then, Mayor Ted Mueller said, Hainesville will have hired a police chief who will put the rest of the pieces into place.

The department will operate out of village hall and will have a budget of $542,000.

Mueller acknowledged the undertaking is ambitious and will be difficult, but is confident it is possible.

He said the field of potential police chiefs has been narrowed to two. Both are retired law enforcement officers from Lake County.

Once a chief is selected, Mueller is going to leave the hiring and day-to-day operations up to him. The new chief will hire two or three full-time officers and four to eight part-time officers, Mueller said, all of whom he hopes will be experienced police officers.

Weinstein said whoever the chief will be, there is going to be a lot of learning along the way.

When you start from nothing, he said, there are things you need that you would never even consider.

Weinstein did have one advantage over the future chief in Hainesville: His community embraced the idea of a police department.

Hainesville residents have flooded meetings on the subject, questioning the village's ability to create, run and sustain its own police department.

The timeframe is of particular concern.

Hainesville has had the issue on the table for a few months.

In Riverwoods, the village considered a police department for several years, even hiring a consultant to see if it was the right move.

A $705,000 grant from the federal government and $2.5 million from impact fees paid by Discover Financial Services, which is based in the village, was the push officials needed to more forward.

The first month, the Riverwoods Police Department had Weinstein, a sergeant and one full-time officer.

Slowly, the personnel and budget have grown.

Today, there are seven full-time officers -- including Weinstein, who still works a patrol shift -- six part-timers and four vehicles. Its budget was $544,051 in 2002; in 2008 it is $1.4 million.

Hainesville's police department budget is $542,000, only about $7,500 more than what next year's costs would be if the village stuck with Round Lake Park.

As for advice for Hainesville, Weinstein said the chief should not depend too much on part-time officers, because scheduling is very difficult.

And second, pay attention to equipment, from pens to radar guns. Things always need to be replaced, he said.

"A new department will always be under a microscope because there is no good-faith built in," Weinstein said. "There will always be bumps and it is a constant learning curve. But I really feel a community benefits by having a local police department."