S. Barrington looks to hire more police officers

Though the past decade has seen major growth in South Barrington's residential and commercial areas, its police department is staffed exactly as before.

An increase in break-ins and burglaries over the past few months has led some residents and officials to conclude that the time to hire more officers is well past due.

Though Village President Frank Munao also believes there will eventually be a need for more officers, he thinks it wise to wait until the first property taxes from new homes and businesses are collected this fall. He's skeptical of the ability to prevent break-ins with more officers.

The debate might be decided as early as tonight, when a 7:30 p.m. special meeting at village hall has been called to consider Trustee Steve Guranovich's request to add four officers and a sergeant to the force's staff of 15 officers.

He said each new officer would cost about $100,000 a year, including benefits, and that the village has sufficient funds for this. Also, a pending request for a federal stimulus grant could be used to offset the cost if approved before they're actually sworn in this fall at the earliest.

"To my mind, we're well beyond the fiscal part of it," Guranovich said. "Now it's about protecting the citizens."

Munao said he's less certain about the village's eligibility for the grant if any officers are already in the hiring process by the time a decision on it is made.

He's also reluctant to dip into reserves when there are so many unknowns to deal with lately, including the cost of each winter's snow removal.

Since the last increase in the village's police force, South Barrington has seen the addition of a 30-screen movie theater, The Woods subdivision, The Arboretum of South Barrington shopping center, the South Barrington Executive Office Park and 13 more locations with liquor licenses.

But Munao maintains that holding out just a few more months to make sure new revenues match the new expenses is the right course of action.

Two members of the village's police commission - created to oversee new hires and disciplinary procedures - left the panel after disagreeing with Munao over staff levels.

Both Gary Anton and David Shotts were former village trustees appointed to the commission by Munao. Shotts now lives in Lake in the Hills, but had the special qualification of having served on a similar panel for Chicago Police.

Shotts said that even though more officers can't guarantee break-ins will stop, an increase in crime must be addressed in some fashion to keep it from escalating.

"You're still dealing with citizens living in an affluent community, and they don't expect their mayor to patronize them and tell them it's really not so bad," Shotts said.

But Munao believes the increase in burglaries is a symptom of the economy being felt across the region and not from understaffing on South Barrington's part.

In Bartlett, Police Chief Dan Palmer addressed his village board Tuesday about three residential break-ins over the weekend. Car burglaries, mostly to unlocked cars, are not unusual, he said. But Bartlett has seen a spike in home break-ins.

Other suburbs including Hanover Park and Streamwood have also recently looked at adding more officers to their police forces.

Munao said he's unsure if he'll consider a veto even if new officers are approved today. He's still open to hearing others' opinions, especially residents'.

• Staff writer Ashok Selvam contributed to this report.