An after action report assessing the Oak Park police department’s handling of an hours long teen takeover disturbance in downtown Oak Park last Halloween has been circulating among certain village staff for the past two months.
Consultant Jensen Hughes states it was authorized to conduct an independent investigation into the “planning and response” to the Halloween 2025 events. The review was explicitly limited “to the actions of OPPD personnel, not personnel from other assisting police departments.”
In conducting the investigation, Jensen Hughes reviewed various policies and protocols of the OPPD, reviewed operation plans and notes and reports related to the Oct 31 incident, and reviewed Computer Assisted Dispatch records and other electronic data, including body worn cameras and squad car dash camera video. They also interviewed numerous officers and police supervisory and command staff.
The 30-page report, which has not yet been formally released, was obtained by Wednesday Journal through a Freedom of Information Act request. It was sent to Village Manager Kevin Jackson on Aug. 4.
CPOC, the Citizens Police Oversight Committee, is scheduled to meet on Oct. 19, at which time it is expected they will discuss the Jensen Hughes report and its recommendations. The village board is scheduled to meet the next night, though no agenda is yet available.
In a cover letter, Debra Kirby of Jensen Hughes said the Oak Park police department “demonstrated strengths that can serve as a foundation to enhance its planning, preparedness, and response to similar incidents in the future.”
Oak Park police, the report stated, “managed a challenging and dynamic incident, showing community focus, restraint in the use of force.”
The report found that Oak Park officers “handled the crowd professionally,” resulting in none of the serious injuries and property damage “that other communities have experienced during similar incidents.”
The officer’s tactics “focused on specific unlawful behavior such as physical fights and traffic obstructions” rather than making “indiscriminate” arrests.
“However,” the report said, “OPPD could have engaged in better planning to decrease the confusion and challenges faced by the department and community that evening.” The report also found that OPPD needed to establish protocols for producing after incident reports for such events.
“We welcome the recommendations from Jensen and Hughes,” Chief Shatonya Johnson said in a Monday afternoon interview with the Journal. “I said it last year. Our officers did what they were supposed to do, keep the community safe and participants safe.”
Oak Park officers, Johnson said, relied “on the training they received. When it became unsafe, we had to step in.”
The report said that OPPD command staff were concerned enough about past Halloween disturbances that they ordered four officers who’d worked the day shift to stay on duty to augment the night patrol shift. The police chief and investigations commander also stayed on duty to monitor developments.
The first signs of trouble were observed “around 7:50 p.m.,” when a fight started inside the Chipotle Grill at 1128 Lake St. “Tables were overturned and chairs were thrown at officers as they gained control of the situation.”
While the fight was quickly stopped, “the scene became more chaotic outside and in the surrounding area.” At 7:56 one officer “indicated that this looked like a teen take over.”
Between the Chipotle incident and 8:20 p.m., police broke up at least six other fights between teens in the vicinity of Lake and Marion. Oak Park command requested but did not receive assistance from the Cook County Sheriff.
A minute or so later, officers reported shots fired on Forest Avenue north of Lake. The on site commander told the West Suburban Consolidated Dispatch Center (WSCDC) to send whatever departments were available to assist, “Berwyn, Riverside, anybody you got — need Lake Street shut down.”
Officers from Forest Park and River Forest had already begun responding when they heard that Oak Park officers were struggling to deal with a belligerent mob. Other officers from Forest Park, Berwyn and Cicero responded within minutes to an ILEAS call out.
“Agencies identified as responding included Berwyn, Cicero, Melrose Park, Forest View, and Maywood,” the report stated.
At 8:22, officers reported hearing shots fired near Lake and Forest. Two Oak Park officers reported retrieving their service rifles after the shots fired report.
Another Oak Park officer reported using a taser to break up a fight. And a River Forest officer reported “deploying pepper balls to the pavement twice near teenagers to break up a fight and during crowd control.”
At 8:24, Chief Johnson gathered her officers and ordered them to begin moving the crowd east on Lake Street. As the crowd moved, “small groups of individuals broke off and instigated physical fights among themselves, which officers stopped.”
By 9:45, the crowd was at Lake and Austin, where Chicago Police took over crowd control.
Johnson stressed, as the consultant’s report also noted, that the River Forest officer who deployed two pepperballs to break up a fight, fired the projectiles at the ground, not at anyone’s feet.
Among the Jensen Hughes recommends are that Oak Park “Consider updating the OPPD 1985 Mutual Aid Agreement with River Forest and Forest Park to ensure it considers changes in legal standards, technology and the threat landscape.”
Asked about that recommendation, Johnson said, “That’s something I can’t discuss (with the media).”
Jensen Hughes also noted there was no Incident Command (IC) log of the events of that night. They said, “after action reviews are more effective when an IC log is completed and a scribe is used,” calling that approach a best practice.
Jensen Hughes also recommended that OPPD review its criminal intelligence capacity and “develop and expand appropriate partnerships and intelligence-sharing agreements with other police departments…”
Johnson said Oak Park police do monitor social media, “utilizing the tools we have. We didn’t identify any information that suggested there’d be a teen take over.”
Asked if her department was making plans for the upcoming Halloween the last Saturday of October, Johnson said, “We’re definitely taking the recommendations from the report and making sure we’re prepared.”
She said she was prepared to discuss the report’s recommendations with the village board.