Some small suburbs try to make it with own police department

Couple financial constraints with population growth, and you've got several smaller suburbs opting to make big changes to protect their citizens.

Inverness, Pingree Grove, Campton Hills and Hainesville are among the communities that started their own police departments in the last five years — with varying degrees of success.

Two years after Northwest suburban Inverness ended a 30-plus-year agreement with Barrington for police protection in order to form its own force, promises of significant cost savings are coming to fruition.

“It was absolutely the right decision as evidenced by the level of service, the visibility of our officers, the economics and all the little notes I get from pleased residents,” Inverness Village President Jack Tatooles said.

In 2008, trustees voted to create a department primarily based on a consultant's projections that Inverness, an affluent residential Cook County community with 7,399 people and one office park, would save $1.3 million over the life of Barrington's proposed five-year, $10.1 million contract.

Including the $1.6 million police budget expected to be approved for fiscal year 2012, the village will have spent $4.5 million in three years operating its own department, putting it on track to save even more than originally thought.

But Police Chief Bob Haas says there is more than just financial savings.

Haas said his is a service-oriented department made up of 12 full-time and two part-time officers who are usually away from their desks and on the streets. It's common for someone on patrol to stop and chat with a resident, or try to close a garage door left open overnight, he said.

In its first year, Inverness police patrolled more than 133,000 miles on neighborhood streets. They wrote 702 Crimes of Opportunity alerts to let residents know they saw something unusual that could lead to a theft, burglary or vandalism — like newspapers piled up, a sure indicator the residents were away.

The department received 2,215 calls for service from May 2010-April 2011, on par with the number it got the previous year.

Inverness still reaps the benefits of a larger department, however, with its sworn personnel boosting more than 370 years of law enforcement experience. The two part-time officers represent the village on the region's major case and Northern Illinois Police Alarm System teams.

“I haven't heard any complaints, and from shopping smart to doing our own cleaning, we've managed to come in under budget,” Haas said.

A different story

A similar undertaking had a far different result in the Lake County community of Hainesville, where officials last summer chalked up their 2-year-old police department as a failed experiment and turned to Grayslake for police protection.

Unlike Inverness, which planned for nearly two years before starting up, Hainesville “hastily” pieced together its own force in 2008 when it became clear its nine-year relationship with Round Lake Park for police service had gone south over money squabbles and a lack of communication, Hainesville Mayor Linda Soto said.

Hainesville didn't have a dedicated space like Inverness' village hall annex, or as comfortable a budget. Inverness' median household income was $133,194, while Hainesville had just 3,597 residents and a median income of $82,791.

It did have decades of experience employing its own part-time police department, but a lot has changed since just 134 residents called the rural community home in the early 1990s, Soto said.

To deal with a booming population in the wake of limited resources, Grayslake began policing the village last July. Including dispatching fees, Hainesville expects to spend about $800,000 annually on police protection as opposed to the $1.1 million officials said would be needed to move its own department out of village hall with full-time officer staffing.

Grayslake Police Chief Larry Herzog said his department of 33 full-time and two part-time officers created a fifth beat for Hainesville, leading to a manageable two or three more calls everyday.

The smaller village is benefiting from being part of a larger department through access to a SWAT team, crime lab, mobile field force and major crimes unit, he said.

“It's hard for a small police agency to have all those things in place,” Herzog said. “And if something goes down, you'll have three cars there immediately as opposed to one.”

Soto said the switch is a trade-off, but she's thrilled.

“Before, could you see an officer driving around every five minutes and did that make you feel fuzzy inside? Sure,” Soto said. “But we weren't in a situation financially, nor did we have the space, to do basic things properly like evidence collection and storage.”

Leaving Kane County

Pingree Grove and Campton Hills started their own police departments instead of continuing to use the Kane County Sheriff's Office, albeit for different reasons.

Whereas Campton Hills' decision to form its own force coincided with its decision to incorporate in 2007, Pingree Grove's venture was a result of its growth spurt.

With the Cambridge Lakes development, Pingree Grove, northwest of Elgin, has seen its population skyrocket from just 125 residents in 2005 to 4,532 people today. It's expected to surpass 15,000 once the village is built out.

Continuing to rely on Kane County — stretched over more than 520 square miles and dealing with its own financial woes — was no longer an option.

So Pingree Grove started its own police department in 2006, built a $3.5 million station in 2008 and today employs four full-time and 11 part-time officers.

But the challenges are plentiful for the community, which has a median household income of $73,125.

The $730,000 police budget is more than half of the village's $1.35 million general fund, and finding ways to reduce a $700,000 deficit this year included 13 furlough days for Police Chief Carol Lussky. A police protection tax was briefly on the table.

It's also not ideal to depend on so many part-time officers. They're cheaper because they don't get benefits, but many have primary jobs at other departments, so “scheduling alone is a nightmare,” Lussky said.

Still, Lussky, who spent 26 years with Hanover Park, said Pingree Grove is fortunate that all of its sworn personnel are law enforcement veterans as opposed to fresh out of the academy. Most are trained evidence technicians, too.

“Just because we're small doesn't mean we can't do things the proper way,” Lussky said, adding that Kane County will pool officers to help the village should a major violent crime take place. “In fact, we can pay more attention to detail because we have more time.”

She said that experience will be vital if there's an uptick in criminal activity. So far, the department hasn't seen that trend aside from more domestic issues, which Lussky attributes to the economy.

Yet calls for service jumped from about 1,050 in 2008 to 1,600 last year as residents became more familiar with the department, Deputy Chief Shawn Beane said, which could be a sign of things to come.

Like its neighbor 15 miles to the north, officials in Campton Hills are pleased with the level of service having their own police department has provided since the village incorporated in 2007.

It's no knock against Kane County, everyone emphasizes, but the result has been improved response times, local control and more of a presence in the community.

In the suburb of 11,131 residents west of St. Charles, Police Chief Daniel Hoffman said a source of pride for the department is how efficiently it operates. With a budget of about $900,000, he believes his is the most cost-effective in the state at about $70 per resident.

The six full-time and 10 part-time officers responded to 4,843 calls for service last year. The number is down 13.5 percent from the year before, as community policing increases and residents get more accustomed as to what they should call about, Hoffman said.

A lot of calls are residents requesting vacation checks.

“No way you could do that in Aurora where I retired from,” Police Chief Daniel Hoffman said. “We would have laughed at some of the calls I get, but here it's about more personalized service.”

Growing communities

<b>Hainesville:</b> 3,597 pop. in 2010; 2,129 in 2000; 69% growth

<b>Inverness:</b> 7,399 pop. in 2010; 6,749 in 2000; 10% growth

<b>Pingree Grove:</b> 4,532 pop. in 2010; 124 in 2000; 3,555% increase

<b>Campton Hills:</b> 11,131 pop. in 2010 (town was incorporated in 2007 to past population figures not available)