Hanover Park police chief sounds alarm

Hanover Park's police department is among the area's busiest. It's also one of the most understaffed.

Chief Ron Moser presented the bottom line Monday night to the village board in a police manpower study. He's asking for an additional nine to 19 officers to adequately staff the village police force.

With 52 sworn officers, Hanover Park averages just 1.36 officers per 1,000 residents, the lowest ratio of the surveyed towns in Cook and DuPage counties. The highest-staffed departments in the two counties are Barrington Hills (5.11 officers) and Itasca (3.07 officers). The Midwest average is 1.60 officers per 1,000 people.

Compounding the problem is the amount of activity in Hanover Park. Officers average 834 calls each year, the most in Cook County and second to West Chicago (899 calls) in DuPage. Calls for service are up 10 percent in the past three years.

As it stands, Hanover Park has a "basic, functioning, no-frills police department," said Mayor Rod Craig. A fully functional staff would require 61 officers at a price tag of $105,000 per officer, or about $1 million more in total. And that's just for one year.

The problem: There's no money in the budget.

The board discussed ideas to raise additional revenue, including red-light ticketing and vehicle stickers. A more realistic and sustainable source would come from an increase in the home-rule sales tax, natural gas or electric-use tax hikes, or the dreaded property tax hike.

"Everybody recognizes the situation," said Trustee Robert Packham. "We need to bite some bullets in order to do this."

Village Manager Marc Hummel said his priority has to be a balanced budget, and suggests hiring one code enforcement officer and one sworn patrol officer this year. The recommendation didn't sit well with the board.

"Incremental hiring is one thing. Turtle pace is another," Trustee Bill Manton said.

Public safety isn't the only casualty of the staffing situation, Moser said. Stress, burnout and high turnover are also consequences. Two officers have already quit the force this year, and four detectives typically work 20 hours of overtime in a week.

Moser also said police suicide is a growing trend as evidenced in Batavia, where two officers have taken their own lives in the past 13 months.

Mayor Craig and trustees asked Hummel to come up with funding scenarios that would get the department to 61 officers within three or four years. He'll present his findings Feb. 28.