Hanover Park needs more officers

There's good news and bad news in the tale of crime statistics for Hanover Park.

First, the good. As Daily Herald staff writer Kimberly Pohl reported Monday, crime in 2008 was at its lowest level in Hanover Park since statistics were first kept in 1974. Gang violence is also down, officials say. In the last decade, gang shootings peaked at 10 in 2002. There have been three so far this year. Reported incidents of gang graffiti are also down.

Now for the bad news. Crime has risen slightly so far this year. Through May, Hanover Park has seen a 5.8 percent increase in serious crimes from the same period in 2008. More disturbing - and the reason behind Pohl's two-part series - is the high number of gang-related incidents since March that resulted in two homicides in late May and early June.

Coupled with two more homicides during that same time period that police say are not gang-related, the issue of crime in Hanover Park is front and center among village residents and officials.

"I don't think we have a resurgence in gang crime," said police Sgt. Joe Ciancio, head of Hanover Park's Special Operations Group. "I think we have two groups battling each other right now."

But that leads to even worse news in the story of the statistics. While Hanover Park battles the gangs and has the second highest number of calls annually per sworn officer, the suburb ranks near the bottom of nearby communities in the number of officers for each 1,000 residents.

A Hanover Park officer, Pohl reports, has to handle three times as many calls in a year as an officer in Hoffman Estates, which had the most staffing of the nine communities surveyed.

Ciancio leads a team of three for the department's gang unit. To help cover some of the gaps this summer, other police departments and the Illinois State Police have rerouted some personnel.

"We're seeing a lot of cross-border activity, so it's in all our interest to help neighbors," Hanover Park interim Police Chief David Webb said when the plan was first publicized in mid-June. "We need extra people on the street right now."

That's a good temporary move. But it's clear that Hanover Park village officials need to figure out a way to permanently get more cops on village streets.

Mayor Rod Craig has said crime prevention is number one on his agenda and he has named Police Chief Ron Moser the interim village manager. Moser has called for additional officers in the past, but financial constraints have kept the department at 54 sworn officers.

We agree with Craig and Moser that increased police staffing is needed to counter the recent surge in gang-related violence and to ease the community's fears moving forward. It's incumbent on them to figure out the best way to pay for that staffing considering the financial strain Hanover Park, like other communities, is under in these troubled economic times.