HomeMy WebLinkAboutResolution #3101
RE90LUTIQV hU. ~i m
A RESOLIJT I qV OPP~061 NG ll-E CLOS 1 N a aF I LL 11~ 1 S STATE POL 1 CE
I-G4DQUARTEF~2S, D 1 STR 1 CT 14, LOCATED I N NI~OOVB, I LL I ND I S.
W-fREAS, it has been announced that the State of Illinois
will close seven (7) Illinois State Police district headquarters
by January 1, 1993; and,
Vll-EREAS, District 14 headquarters at Macomb [which includes
Canton and Fulton County) is scheduled as one of the first to be
closed; and,
VIFfAFAS, it has been suggested that District 14 troopers will
be reassigned to the Pittsfield headquarters (over 90 miles from
Canton); and,
W-IEF2EAS, it further has been suggested that District 8
headquarters at Germantown Hills near Peoria will remain open and
it is noted that Canton and Fulton County were formerly a part of
this district; and,
HI-f31EiAS, the proposed redistricting would place within the
same police district the prisons at Mt. Sterling and Canton; and,
VW-EF~AS, the winter road condition service and other weather
crisis services become centralized or non-existent; and,
1NfREAS, it is foreseen that the closing of the Illinois
State Police headquarters at Macomb will greatly affect Canton and
reduce the number of troopers on duty in the Canton area at a
given time.
IOW, ll-E1~EFq~E, BE 1 T RESOLVED BY TI-E CITY OOINC 1 L OF Ti-E
CITY OF C~WT'OW, Fulton County, Illinois as follows:
1. That the City of Canton desires to have the State Police
Headquarters, District 14 in Macomb, Illinois remain open.
2. That Governor Jim Edgar and officials of the State of
Illinois are urged to allow District 14 Illinois State Police
headquarters at Macomb to remain open considering the presence of
Western Illinois University in that city with the attendant
problems of a major university and other matters described herein.
3. That if the district office at Macomb must be closed,
then it is suggested that Canton, and Fulton County be reassigned
to District 8 where the headquarters are less than an hour's drive
away rather than the hour and a half to Pittsfield and avoiding
the inclusion of two major prisons (Mr. Sterling and Canton) at
remote locations from headquarters within a single district.
4. That the director of the Illinois State Police has
suggested that under the restructuring plan and the sophisticated
radio network it will take no longer to handle calls than it does
today, yet is is ludicrous to assume that a dispatcher in
Pittsfield will know where to send the trooper for an escaped
prisoner..."last seen near Seville" where someone in Macomb could
readily respond. This of course assumes there is a trooper in the
area rather than on the road to or from Pittsfield for the myriad
of administrative reasons that troopers are required to report to
headquarters.
5. The perception of law enforcement is projected by
presence of officers not the degree of sophistication of flow
charts and radio equipment. The attempt to cut "redundant layers
of bureaucracy" is applauded and the reduction of costs of
operation of numerous offices is apparent yet effective law
enforcement, once lost cannot be regained by yet newer and slicker
organizational charts.
6. That at the present time the Illinois State Police are to
be the first to respond to incidents occurring at the Illinois
River Correctional Center and it is reasonably anticipated that
under the reorganization plan primary response will of necessity
come from local police and the sheriff's department with the state
police filling a backup role.
7. That this Resolution shall be in full force and effect
upon its passage by the City Council of the City of Canton,
Illinois.
PASSED by the City Council of the City of Canton, Fulton
County, Illinois at a regular meeting this ~rcl day of March,
1992, upon a roll call vote as follows:
AYES: Aldermen May, Barnett, Meade, Bohler, Steck, Sarff, Coay, Molleck.
NAYS: None,
: None.
APPFmVED:
~~
onald E. Edwards, Mayor
ATTEST:
v
Nan y White City Clerk