Village OKs Spring Hill Mall patrol agreement

To ensure cases against suspected criminals arrested at Spring Hill Mall are watertight, West Dundee officials this week formalized an existing agreement with the Carpentersville Police Department.

The West Dundee village board on Monday approved an intergovernmental agreement strengthening a patrol partnership that allows police from either department to take action in the other's jurisdiction.

The mall, you see, is split between the two towns.

Carpentersville trustees are expected to take similar action at an upcoming board meeting.

West Dundee Police Chief David Sawyer called the pact "a formality," since police action across the border is already permitted under police district policies.

In a police district, Sawyer said, departments have jurisdiction in neighboring municipalities that share a border and are located in the same county.

The agreement, though, solidifies the police district arrangement and ensures potential legal problems are avoided.

"If there is an arrest on either side, there won't be any question about jurisdiction," Sawyer said. "It has never been a problem in the past but we want to make sure it doesn't interfere with cases down the road."

Sawyer said it is rare that two police departments share the same property like at Spring Hill Mall. The section of the mall anchored by Carson Pirie Scott and Kohls - or about a quarter of the mall - is in Carpentersville, while the remainder is in West Dundee.

Carpentersville Village President Bill Sarto applauded West Dundee's adoption of the agreement.

"I think strengthening the police presence is a good thing because people are afraid to shop at the mall," Sarto said. "Policing is a big part of economic development because people need to feel safe where they shop. If they don't feel safe, they aren't going to shop there."

Sawyer, though, said the pact won't increase the number of officers patrolling the mall and is not a response to recent crimes at the mall.

"Like I have said, we are always up there and always have been," Sawyer said.

In March a shooting in the parking lot on Carpentersville's side of the mall left one man seriously injured. Police arrested two men in connection with the shooting, which police said was gang related.

In August, two people were stabbed and two others were punched and kicked in a fight that broke out near the mall's center court and spilled out into the parking lot.