Elgin residents plead for help fighting prostitution, drugs
Frustrated, scared and fed up with drug dealing and prostitution in their near-west-side Elgin neighborhood, residents Wednesday night pleaded with city leaders and the police chief to work with them and take action.
About 20 members of the Near West Neighbors Association attended the council meeting; 10 spoke, each with their own tales of slow or indifferent police responses to complaints of drug houses and hookers at night and in broad daylight.
"Elgin has a lot of pluses, but right now the minuses are starting to outweigh the pluses," said Cinda Bates.
Five years ago, Chris Tsonis and his wife moved to a sprawling 1891 Victorian home. He now fears for the safety of his 8-month-old son, Nicholas, and bought two German shepherds so his family is safe when he's at work.
"I fell in love with Elgin. I'm falling out of love with Elgin," Tsonis said. "I want to leave Elgin."
Chief Lisa Womack said the department has overt operations, such as increased patrols, and covert actions, which include hidden surveillance cameras.
Womack said officer Greg Schneider, who was assigned to live in the neighborhood as part of the resident officer program, was called up May 3 for U.S. Coast Guard duty in Iraq even though he's inactive with "non-deployable status."
She pledged to work more with residents, noted upcoming events in August to build relationships with them, and said police were considering a permanent camera trained on a strip mall at the southwest corner of Route 31 and West Chicago Street.
"We don't just enforce our way out of a problem. There has to be a community response," Womack said.
She said from May 1, 2008, to present compared to the same period in 2007, crime in that area was down 11 percent. But association President Chuck Keysor said he's asked for statistics from Womack but never received any.
Association members offered ideas, such as walking their own patrols, mounting cameras on their homes and publishing pictures of convicted hookers and "johns."
"The police can't be everywhere," said Gary Joy, former association president.
"How can we be part of the solution?"