Brookfield is seeking a second deputy police chief to help spread out the duties of leading a municipal police department.
Police Chief Michael Kuruvilla said in a memo to the village board that police leadership staff, namely Deputy Chief Terry Schreiber, are often required to be available for subordinate officers who lead a shift to contact them both on the clock and off, like on weekends, holiday breaks or scheduled time off. He said the circumstances necessitating a second deputy to share the burden of being on-call have settled into place over time.
“As the profession and as society continues to advance, we do have more demands on the ways we handle calls,” Kuruvilla told the Landmark. “I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but because our calls, and because the way we handle calls, become more complex, it’s more nuanced than it used to be. I explain all that to say, that’s where the call and the demand on staff, especially up through leadership, is required to be more involved and engaged.”
He said the rise of social media and instant access to information has made it so senior police staff have to stay aware of goings-on even when they’re not working.
“When the public was largely dependent on just you, the newspaper, to give them the news, a week would go by before anything would be learned. Where, now, and it’s not so much the newspaper, but a lot of times with social media … questions are asked in real time of us, so it requires us to be more in the know,” he said. “We try very hard to have some healthy balance and things, but policing today does require us in top leadership to have a pulse on what’s happening, even when we’re not here.”
In the memo, Kuruvilla wrote that Schreiber must always stay on-call “with little relief from shift-related concerns, detective division updates and other external requests” while the village’s three lieutenants, who round out the department’s five staff leaders, can coordinate shift coverage when one of them is off work.
“My current deputy chief, Deputy Chief Terry Schreiber, he is a fantastic leader, very skilled and gifted in what he does,” Kuruvilla said. “He’s depended upon 24/7, and, much like [I wrote in] my memo, with the type of things that come to his attention, my thought, just simplistically and practically, is, is there way to give him relief by saying, ‘OK, let me tag you out and tag someone else in’?”
Kuruvilla said he made sure to get Schreiber’s approval before bringing the second deputy chief position to the village board for approval, which trustees granted on Nov. 25 as part of the omnibus agenda for their meeting. He added that, as the chief of police, he will still be accessible at all times to subordinate staff.
“I’m always available, by nature and by definition and duty of my job,” he said. “It’s not like the next step is two chiefs. As long as I can foresee it, my job is going to remain singular.”
Under Illinois law, Brookfield is allowed to add a second deputy chief position because the village has more than 24 full-time police officers. Kuruvilla said the two deputies would likely work staggered shifts, with one focusing on operational duties while the other handles administrative tasks.
“Part of my process was talking to other police chiefs from other departments, not just nearby but even further out, and seeing that having a deputy chief primarily responsible for operations and then another deputy chief primarily responsible for administrative responsibilities is a nice balance that allows those two people to have instrumental control of the department, but they can also overlap and tag in for one another,” he said.
While who does what may depend on whom the police department picks as the new deputy chief, Kuruvilla said Schreiber is “gifted at operations.” That means the incoming deputy would likely handle administrative duties like ensuring officers comply with state standards, writing grants, looking into personnel complaints and overseeing internal staff reviews.
According to Kuruvilla’s memo, the newly appointed deputy will receive a minimum salary increase of 2.5% above the pay of lieutenants. Based on a salary chart of Brookfield employees dated to Jan. 1, lieutenants make about $132,000 per year, meaning the new deputy chief will earn at least roughly $136,000 each year. Brookfield approved a new union contract for police this spring, but the pay raises apply only to officers and sergeants, as police ranked lieutenant or above are considered exempt.
Kuruvilla said he did not yet have a candidate in mind to become Brookfield’s second deputy chief but that he plans to appoint one from within the police department by the end of the year. According to the ordinance that trustees passed, any officer with at least five years of full-time service in Brookfield may be promoted to the position.
