Elgin puts money, support behind adding more police
There will be more police officers patrolling Elgin after the city council approved the budget and recommendations by the community task force on policing.
The department has 184 officers now and, of those, 34 are supervisors. The plan will add five more officers in 2023 and, assuming the funds are in the budget, six more officers in 2024.
The task force's recommendation aligns with Police Chief Ana Lalley's goal of bringing the authorized strength of the department up to 205 officers in the near future. That number is based on the city's population, service calls, and wanting to reduce overtime costs.
The city council unanimously supported hiring new officers, while also expressing surprise about the task force's recommendation; they also had some concerns that adding more police works against the goal of some council members to reduce contact between police and the public.
Council member Tish Powell continued to push for routing more 911 calls involving mental health issues to outside agencies versed in dealing with them. She also raised the idea of having non-sworn police personnel perform traffic stops, an experiment underway in other parts of the country.
"What we didn't discuss is what are we asking, and expecting, our police department to do that they shouldn't be doing," Powell said.
Lalley said the new 988 Lifeline for mental health and substance abuse issues, as well as suicide prevention, already will push more of those calls to outside agencies. In the meantime, the city's police department already has a mental health crisis unit that responds to some of the calls. Lalley said the department sees the value in such a move.
She told the story of the department getting repeated calls to the same home for a barricaded suicidal veteran. After that veteran connected with an officer who is also a military veteran and found help through an outside mental health agency, those repeated calls stopped.
However, Lalley said she doesn't foresee a time when police stop handling mental health crises. Police, she said, will always be the fallback for mental health agencies that lack the staffing to address simultaneous calls. Officers are also sometimes the initial point of intervention when there is an immediate public safety issue involved.
She also would not support having non-sworn police personnel making traffic stops, Lalley said, as Illinois law doesn't allow for that. Plus, only sworn officers are allowed to wear body cameras and maintain the transparency and record of such stops.
"There is always the unknown that could happen on a traffic stop," Lalley said. "I would not feel safe putting (unarmed) people in place to stop vehicles and not knowing what could happen."
Council member Corey Dixon expressed hesitation about adding more police to the city. However, he supported the plan to reduce both overtime and the stress on current police staff.
"That's a public safety issue on another realm," Dixon said.
Hiring new officers will continue a youth movement in the city's police department. Lalley said 65% of the current staff has less than 10 years of experience on the job. She expects up to four more retirements in 2023.
The council also approved recommendations to explore ways to better communicate with Spanish- and Lao-speaking residents and investigate the placement of kiosks around the city where residents can contact the department without having to directly speak to anyone.