I read the recent editorial in Wednesday Journal arguing for “more oversight of the Oak Park Police Department,” and I had a simple reaction: Oak Park leaders are completely missing the point.
The discussion in that community has become so focused on oversight boards, policy reviews, and political posturing that it has overlooked the most fundamental aspect of policing: you cannot have effective policing without police officers.
And right now, officers are leaving.
Supervisors are leaving. Command staff is leaving. The Oak Park Police Department currently has 20+ vacancies, and anyone familiar with modern policing understands how serious that is. Recruiting qualified candidates today is extremely challenging. Keeping experienced officers is even more difficult. Across the country, departments are competing for the same diminishing pool of talent.
When a department begins losing personnel, especially experienced supervisors and command staff, that is not just a personnel issue. It’s a warning signal.
The Oak Park Police Department is an outstanding agency. Most residents recognize this, and every police department in the region knows it.
For decades, Oak Park officers have established a reputation for professionalism, restraint, and community policing. The department receives very few citizen complaints compared to many other jurisdictions. This does not happen by chance. It occurs because good officers, well-trained supervisors, and experienced leadership have cultivated a strong professional culture over many years.
But instead of asking how to support that culture, Oak Park’s political class seems fixated on one idea: more oversight. Oak Park established a civilian oversight commission in 1991, well before most communities even considered it. Yet somehow, the solution always seems to be another layer, another review, another consultant, another committee.
Meanwhile, officers are walking out the door.
Many elected officials still refuse to understand a basic reality. Police officers today have options. When they feel unsupported, constantly second-guessed, and see their profession treated more like a political issue than a public-safety mission, they do not just stay and accept it. They leave.
They transfer to departments where leadership supports them and where the political climate isn’t openly hostile to their work. And word spreads quickly in the law enforcement community. Departments develop reputations both good and bad.
If Oak Park gains a reputation as a place where officers face constant political attack and scrutiny, recruitment will decline, and seasoned officers will keep leaving. This is not speculation; it’s exactly what’s occurring in departments across the country today.
What is most troubling is Oak Park’s leadership’s shortsightedness. Instead of facing the staffing crisis within the department, the focus remains on theoretical accountability models and policy frameworks. That might appeal to activists and editorial pages, but it fails to address the reality inside the department.
A police agency struggles to maintain high standards as vacancies grow, recruitment pools shrink, experienced officers leave, and morale declines. Ultimately, the numbers catch up. They always do.
Police departments are not machines that can be rebuilt overnight. It takes years to develop good patrol officers, years to build strong supervisors, and years to develop command staff who understand how to lead complex organizations. When those people leave, institutional knowledge walks out the door with them. Once that erosion begins, it can take a decade to fix.
The real question Oak Park’s elected officials should be asking isn’t how to create the next oversight structure, but why officers are leaving. If that issue keeps being ignored, the consequences will become painfully clear.
Response times increase, staffing thins, and burnout spreads among the remaining officers. Ultimately, the department that once led becomes just another struggling agency trying to stay afloat.
Oak Park has developed an excellent police department over the years. However, great departments do not rely solely on reputation. They succeed when officers feel supported, respected, and trusted to handle a challenging job.
Currently, Oak Park’s political leaders seem more focused on placating activists and creating oversight mechanisms than on defending the department that maintains community safety.
And a day will come when Oak Park’s politicians will look around and wonder where all the good officers have disappeared to.
The answer is simple: you drove them away.
Tom Weitzel, who grew up in Oak Park, is the retired former police chief of Riverside.