Recent violence clouding progress in Hanover Park

Just two years ago, local leaders voiced optimism that Hanover Park was on an upswing.

Three new business parks had opened, as did a new Menards on Barrington Road.

In 2008, crime in the village dropped to its lowest level since statistics were first tracked in 1974.

All of the positive activity seemed to be washing away the town's often unflattering reputation, said Carol Bock, the widow of former mayor Irv Bock who lost her bid for trustee in April.

Now, the 33-year resident said a rash of crime is threatening to tarnish the good that's been accomplished in the past few years. Bock believes village leaders must unify residents if they're going to halt the violence.

"What's going on in the streets is affecting every single resident. ... who wants to be afraid in their own town?" Bock said Sunday.

Two homicides have occurred in Hanover Park in the past four days, and another death from Saturday is being investigated, authorities said. Since March, the village has seen several shootings and stabbings involving teenagers, with a number of incidents linked to gang activity.

Mayor Rodney Craig says officials are doing all they can, using their police, political and community resources.

Those efforts include a mayor's advisory council with clergy, police, social workers and educators charged with developing preventive strategies. Craig has asked residents to join the cause and help make the village safer, and he's been in contact with U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam and state Rep. Fred Crespo.

Roskam said Sunday that what is needed to combat the violence it a community-based approach that brings people from across the spectrum together.

"I've worked to secure funding for positive community-oriented organizations in the 6th District, though we must understand that federal funding alone won't solve the problem," he said.

Hanover Park applied for federal money to beef up its police services through the new federal stimulus package, but it's not yet known whether they'll get any of it because Roskam said it's being doled out at a "glacial pace."

In the meantime, Hanover Park Police are putting as many officers on the street as possible.

"We have canceled officers' training. We have canceled their vacation time. We have 100 percent of our department engaged in what's happening in our community. We want them on the street," Craig said. "We believe our streets are safe, and we want the residents of this community to know that. We have had some isolated incidents of violence, and that is unacceptable. So we are all working together to let the residents know that Hanover Park is a good community. There are some good things going on here. We have had some quality events happening this weekend, and people need to be aware of that."

Craig said if the village needs to provide domestic violence training, it is willing to do that. If it needs to speak in the schools about gang awareness, it is willing to do that as well.

Hanover Park has risen from these situations in the past. During dozens of gang-related shootings in 1996, elected officials worked with the police department and residents to help clean up the town and get rid of gangs.

A new police chief, Phillip Bue, was hired and took an aggressive stance on crime. He saturated neighborhoods with police and added things like a Neighborhood Watch program and a Summer Mobile Force, and focused police attention in certain neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the village remodeled its Neighborhood Resource Center and provided additional support services, for issues like domestic violence.

Things quieted down for a little while, and Bue left the department a short time later.

It remains to be seen how Hanover Park leaders will handle the same situation 12 years later, but as Bue said in a 1997 interview with the Daily Herald, "This doesn't happen overnight."

• Staff Writer Steve Zalusky contributed to this report.

512322Investigators stand by as workers from Countryside Funeral Home in Streamwood, prepare to remove the body of victim Norma Favela from the scene of a Hanover Park murder.Joe Lewnard | Staff Photographer 512342Police respond to a house in Hanover Park on Sunday where a woman was found dead the day before.Kevin Sherman | Staff Photographer 512342Officers Rich Sawyer and Michael Van Allen respond to a house in Hanover Park on Sunday where a woman was found dead the day before.Kevin Sherman | Staff Photographer 415512Diontae Roberts 512302The Major Case Assistance Team works with the Hanover Park Police as they investigate the stabbing death Saturday morning of Diontae Roberts of Hanover Park.Gilbert R. Boucher II | Staff Photographer <div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=299007">Hanover Park plans domestic violence forum <span class="date">[6/8/09]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298985">Third Hanover Park death investigated <span class="date">[6/7/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>