DeKalb officials address concerns raised over police on public buses

DeKALB – DeKalb city leaders recently faced questioning over a newly-instituted measure that allows police officers to patrol buses.

The patrols were announced recently by city officials, who said a $50,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration, will help pay for overtime costs at the DeKalb Police Department.

Sycamore resident Cody Cahill, who is a junior at Northern Illinois University, questioned the city’s reasoning for allocating grant funding to patrol buses.

“Putting it towards extra policing when there’s been no statistical indication that such resort is needed is just financially irresponsible,” Cahill said. “Why are we trying to get ahead of a problem that we feel like we might have later on? Fix the problems that we have right now.”

Sycamore resident Chris Falco said there may be better ways to put the grant funding to use.

“I don’t necessarily think that this type of community outreach as it’s been called is effective,” Falco said. “I think it causes more problems than maybe it’s worth. I feel that having officers on the buses when there’s not currently a problem may start to a cause a issue where people believe the buses are unsafe.”

City officials have said the patrols are not being used in response to significant reports of crime but are meant to be used in a proactive, not reactive sense.

Mike Neuenkirchen, the city’s transit manager, said extra police on buses is not intended to be a punitive measure.

“It’s really to get the officers some familiarization with how the system works because they do respond to issues throughout the course of the shift, give them familiarization with the service, give our [riders] familiarization with the police officers that they’re contacting for emergency issues,” Neuenkirchen said. “And that’s not necessarily crime related. I mean, sometimes that could be accidents. A lot of times it’s slips and falls.”

Recent action taken by the City Council comes on the heels of a directive issued in September 2024 by the Federal Transit Administration to address attacks on public transit workers.

Neuenkirchen said the city sees the patrolling of buses as a positive development.

“My understanding is there has already been a couple of those ridealong shifts that have happened,” Neuenkirchen said. “Positive news, I think, with that. We’re looking forward to seeing this continue.”

The $50,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration will allow the city to pay for about 500 hours in overtime costs for DeKalb police officers through the course of the year, officials said.

Sycamore resident Alicia Iverson urged the city to consider paying for the installation of more lighting at bus stops instead.

“I genuinely don’t think having police patrols on the buses will ingratiate the police to the community,” Iverson said. “I think it will scare the community. Please consider lighting the bus stops instead.”

Like Iverson, 1st Ward Alderwoman Carolyn Zasada shared concerns about the lighting at bus stops.

“I do wonder if you could carve up this $50K and maybe put a little bit more toward some lighting at bus stops because it is really scary, especially in dark when people have nowhere to sit on the side of the road in the snow,” Zasada said.

Mayor Cohen Barnes suggested that area service organizations could help pay for benches.

“I would encourage the idea of Kiwanis or Rotary doing the bus stops,” Barnes said. “I think that’s our responsibility is individually to reach out to those organizations and educate them on the need and see if we can get them to champion something like that.”

Zasada said she believes the city should amend its contract with the shelter company who she believes is creating a barrier for having more seats at bus stops.

“I think we can have benches funded by images on the benches, or we can just have benches funded by service organizations in our community,” Zasada said. “Our service organizations are eager to have projects like this, that could be great.”