Whoever is elected to lead the Riverside village board on April 7 will be addressing possible economies to achieve a balanced budget. We’re suggesting that the police department is not the place to start looking to cut corners.
The last two weeks are a perfect example of just how thin the Riverside department is stretched. Anything the least bit unusual puts an enormous strain on the department. A string of unusual occurrences makes it that much worse.
When the department’s lone detective went on a scheduled vacation at the end of last week, police were already dealing with the village’s second armed bank robbery in the past three months. The week before, several officers were injured during a struggle with a man armed with two knives.
On Sunday night a horrible, fatal car crash happened on First Avenue. With no detective available, the police chief was forced to pull one officer off of street patrol to serve as the interim detective.
On Tuesday morning, the village experienced another armed robbery, this time at Grumpy’s Café. The FBI was scheduled to meet with Riverside police yesterday regarding the March 26 bank robbery. The department was also gathering additional evidence for the Cook County State’s Attorney to facilitate charges against the man suspected of drunk driving in Sunday’s fatal accident.
The department was so taxed that at least at one point in the day on Monday, a patrol officer was answering the phone in the dispatch center.
To top it all off, the department is still down one sworn officer from its roster. There is an officer currently at the state police academy, but he won’t be available as an independent officer for months.
At least one lieutenant in the department’s command staff is responding to street calls at this time, according to Chief Thomas Weitzel.
Public safety is the No. 1 responsibility of village government. We all know that the next couple of years are going to be tight ones with respect to funding village services and programs.
But to suggest that Riverside’s police department is the place to start looking for a couple of spare dollars is foolish.
Ready, set, vote!
Well, it’s E-minus-6 and counting. The most riveting election season in many years in Riverside, North Riverside and Brookfield will be wrapping up next Tuesday on Election Day.
While not everyone agrees on who is best-suited to lead for the next four years, we can all agree that getting out to vote is in the best interest of everyone. Typically, these local races have been low-turnout affairs in recent years.
If voters are going to hand out mandates to candidates, they should do it in droves.