What in heaven’s name is going on in the River Forest Police Department?
For a police force of just 30 people, there is an outsized amount of drama.
A quick toting up of the charges and countercharges reveals that both deputy chiefs have now filed complaints with the village claiming that each has been harassed by their subordinates. Several of the subordinates have filed complaints claiming they have been harassed by the deputy chiefs. The patrol officers took a vote of no-confidence in the chief and both deputy chiefs last year. The chief has forcefully rejected that vote. And then there is the federal lawsuit recently settled between the village and two high-ranking cops who charged discrimination in the department’s promotion policy.
And we won’t even mention the more tawdry “he said, she said” aspects of the upset.
There are, of course, political connections to this disruptiveness that parallel the meltdown in the previously settled ways of River Forest public affairs-where, fundamentally, Frank Paris ruled the roost. Since the village election a year back when voters chose, knowingly or not, a couple of insurrectionists to upend Paris’ cozy hold on power, the police department has been the most notable, but not the sole, focus of the political fighting.
Critics would say that newly elected trustees Steve Hoke and Stephen Dudek, joined by holdover trustee and former fire chief Russ Numer, have exploded, and exploited, tensions in the police department for political purposes. Further, critics, including the village president, would conclude that in our detailed reporting of the turmoil that Wednesday Journal either has an axe to grind or is simply being used by the board’s minority bloc.
Our response to both suggestions is that the board majority, current and past, has aggressively buried its head as this fine police department has imploded for reasons that, most certainly, could have and should have been addressed through better leadership, some common sense, and candor.
The village president is to blame, the passive board majority is to blame, the current and past village administrators are to blame, and current and past police chiefs are to blame. The current police chief will most certainly have to go if ever there is to be a path forward for this department.
All that said, we’d agree that much of what has transpired from all participants in the past many months is finger-wagging and hot air. But that doesn’t mean legitimate issues haven’t festered into a nasty mess.
We give credit to the village, albeit far too late, for its hiring of River Forest attorney Patrick Deady to come in and begin to sort through the rubble of these many allegations. Should have been done long ago. And whatever report he is going to issue can’t come too soon.
Bad grades. Bad behavior.
It is intuitive that high school kids with lousy grades are the same kids entangled in the discipline system. Or try it in reverse. Kids who are behavior problems get lousy grades.
At Oak Park and River Forest High School, that intuition is now statistically proven. The 40 students in the most repetitive contact with disciplinarians during the last school year (2006-07) had a grade point average of 1.48 out of 4.0.
We don’t doubt that similar statistics would show up at most high schools. But we do think that converting the supposition to hard statistics is a necessary step toward addressing it.
