Mayor, chief: We were 'exploited'

We are writing to set the record straight with regard to candidate Steve Greenberg's attempt to highjack the good name of the Gurnee Police Department.

The primary job of any law-enforcement agency is to protect the people and property within their jurisdiction and maintain strong community relationships. We are proud of our department's record of combating crime and helping to maintain the high quality of life that the residents of Gurnee enjoy. We often receive requests from community members to learn about our efforts and the challenges we face as first responders. One recent request came from Steve Greenberg, candidate for Congress in the 8th District.

While the Gurnee Police Department is a completely non-political agency, we obliged Steve Greenberg's request for a meeting with the understanding that he had a sincere interest in learning about law-enforcement and would not seek to politicize the visit.

Unfortunately, we were misled by Mr. Greenberg into believing he had an interest in expanding his knowledge when in fact he was only interested in exploiting our good name for his political gain. This became painfully evident when he showed up with a camera crew and reporters to cover his visit and even more obvious when he sent a campaign e-mail using an unauthorized picture of himself with a Gurnee Police vehicle.

It is an important duty of any law enforcement agency to be open and educate community members about our challenges and victories. However, we are a non-political organization and wish to set the record straight that we feel we were taken advantage of and exploited by Mr. Greenberg.

We enjoy a strong working relationship with both of Gurnee's representatives in Congress, Melissa Bean and Mark Kirk, and commend them for the work they are doing for law enforcement both nationally and locally.

Mayor Kristina Kovarik

Police Chief Robert Jones

Gurnee