Barrington police chief, five officers to retire early

When the Barrington Police Department's service to Inverness ends May 1, six veteran officers - including Chief Jeff Lawler - will end their careers the same day.

In order to scale down the department once its contract to police Inverness ends, officers with more than 25 years' experience were offered early retirement packages.

Joining Lawler in retirement at the end of the month will be Det. Raymond Peters, Officer Kenneth Sarni and sergeants Mark Kaspar, Jack Humer and James Yost - most of whom have more than 30 years with the department, Village Manager Denise Pieroni said.

The village hasn't begun a search for a new chief. The current plan is for Deputy Chief Jerry Libit to run the department for at least a time, Village President Karen Darch said.

Lawler was unavailable for comment Friday.

It's still not clear if the number of officers taking early retirement will be sufficient to avoid layoffs, Darch said.

It's possible the three officers with the lowest level of seniority could be laid off to bring the department to its new optimum number of 23, Pieroni said. But the village is looking into a law enforcement stimulus grant in hopes of keeping one or more of these officers.

The department has had an optimum number of 34 officer positions but has actually operated with 32 or less in recent years.

Barrington isn't losing all its experienced officers in the May 1 retirements, Pieroni said. Libit himself has more than 25 years with the department and is not even the most senior officer who will remain.

But the retirement of six veterans certainly will even further widen the gap between the average age of the Barrington department and the new one that will replace its service in Inverness.

In an effort to be cost-effective for taxpayers, the new Inverness Police Department will be staffed by previously retired officers in their early 50s who've already earned their pensions from years of service to other departments, Inverness Village President Jack Tatooles said.

As Inverness is nearly all residential, village leaders didn't feel a strong need to have - or at least pay for - the types of service the Barrington department was providing for businesses, schools and such other public places, Tatooles said.