Schaumburg police will mark 50 years on Monday

The Schaumburg Police Department, a pioneer and leader in the Northwest suburbs, will celebrate its 50th anniversary from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday with an open house at its station.

That station, the Martin J. Conroy Police Center at 1000 W. Schaumburg Road, is named after the village's first police chief and full-time employee, who led the department from 1960 to 1981.

From the leadership of that Marine and former Chicago police officer through his five successors, the Schaumburg department became the first in Illinois to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies in Virginia and the first to enforce a mandatory Crime Free Multi-Housing program for apartments and condos.

The department lost its first officer in the line of duty only 16 months ago, when 19-year veteran Frank Russo suffered a heart attack while helping subdue a suspect resisting arrest.

But the department has never yet had to kill anyone in response to a crime, current Police Chief Brian Howerton said.

"In my opinion, the reason for that is that throughout its history, this village never skimped when it came to training," Howerton said. "I don't feel it's 50 years of luck."

He pointed to an incident in January in which Schaumburg officers responded to a home invasion in progress. Even though one officer was shot at, he made the wise call to chase the fleeing suspect and successfully arrest him rather than return fire in a residential area, Howerton said.

These safety records are no mean feat considering the Schaumburg village board began making plans in the '60s for the town to be much more than a bedroom community.

With a major commercial area, including high-rise office buildings, a convention center and one of the world's largest shopping malls, Schaumburg police face the same challenges as many big city departments in addition to providing community services for more than 75,000 residents.

But it didn't start that way.

According to Pat Minarcik, who served as secretary to Schaumburg's first four police chiefs, the village was already four years old with a population just more than 1,000 in 1960 when the board decided to hire its own police force.

Mayor Bob Atcher himself reached out to Conroy, an acquaintance of his, who had already moved from Chicago to the Skokie department.

Minarcik moved to town herself in 1963, when it was still very much a farming community and animal complaints topped the list of the police department's duties.

She was hired in 1969 as a part-time records clerk and matron. Because there were no female officers until 1984, a matron's duties involved assisting with the jailing of female suspects.

Minarcik became Conroy's secretary in 1975. He retired in 1981 and passed away in 1996.

Minarcik retired in 1999, also having served as secretary to chiefs Robert Hammond, Kenneth Alley and James Palmer.

She said each chief's personality affected the character of the whole department. Conroy's Marine background, for example, probably caused him to run things like a paramilitary organization, she said.

Since her retirement, Richard Casler and now Howerton have served as chief.

The department's changing headquarters over the years also affected the overall tone.

The first station was a converted store at Golf and Roselle roads. That was followed by a converted house on Springinsguth Road. Then came the use of the Schaumburg Barn on Carver Lane and finally the current facility in 1976.

"It was the best!" Minarcik said, her eyes glowing with the memory of walking through the building for the first time. "It was state of the art!"

There were expansions to the building in 1988 and 2003, and it should continue to serve Schaumburg for many years to come, Howerton said.

He's hoping both the community and many retired veterans of the department will visit during the open house Monday for a variety of celebratory events and demonstrations. There will be tours of the station as well every half-hour from 6:30 p.m.

Having joined the department in 1981, the only retiree Howerton never worked with was Conroy himself, who had stepped down just two weeks before Howerton started.