Oswego Police launches new unit to strengthen community ties

To further strengthen its relationships with the community, the Oswego Police Department has started a community engagement unit.

“What we’re talking about tonight is community policing,” said Oswego Police Chief Jason Bastin in talking to business owners and other community stakeholders recently about the new community engagement unit. “And I look at community policing as just policing. It’s our ability to build relationships with the community to help us do our jobs better.”

Oswego Police Patrol Sgt. Matt Gallup will supervise the new unit. Gallup said a strong relationship with the community is key to preventing crime.

“The key to preventing crime is earning the public support,” Gallup said during the Jan. 14 presentation. “The police earn public support by respecting the community’s principles and building relationships within the community.”

The overall goal of the community engagement unit is to improve the quality of the community, he said. The officers in the unit will be regularly checking on businesses.

“They’re going to get assigned to foot patrols through the business districts,” Gallup said. “We’re trying to get our officers back to businesses, checking in to make sure that you guys don’t have any problems.”

In addition, each officer will be assigned to approximately 10 homeowners associations. That number could grow as the number of residential developments in the village grows.

Officers will attend homeowners associations meetings and will patrol neighborhoods and parks, Gallup said. Police officers will also be at different community events.

None of the officers that are involved in the community engagement unit were assigned to the team.

“All of these officers sitting here volunteered and said they wanted to do this,” Gallup said. “I think that speaks more to their character and wanting to be part of this community than anything else.”

Among those on the team is Oswego police detective Kristyn Chmielewski, who grew up in Oswego and is a Oswego East High School graduate.

“So I have a very vested interest here in this community,” she said.

Oswego police officer Cherese Spears, who also is a member of the new community engagement unit, already has developed a relationship with the village’s business owners during her time with the department.

“I have a great connection with our downtown businesses,” she said.

As a member of the new unit, she plans to get connected with businesses in other parts of the village, such as in the Kendall Point Business Center.

Angie Hibben, president/chief executive officer of the Oswego Area Chamber of Commerce, thinks the police department’s new community engagement unit is a good idea.

“It builds camaraderie,” she said. “During the Cookie Walk in downtown Oswego, Cherese came around and she was talking to the business owners and meeting and greeting them. They love that. It means a lot to them.”

In addition to the new community engagement unit, the police department will be hiring its first full-time community oriented policing officer later this year. The Oswego Village Board has already approved the position.

“This full-time community oriented policing officer will work hand in hand basically on the same vision,” Bastin said. “That officer will spent 100% of their time focused on nothing more than community policing.”

More information about the police department’s new community engagement unit is available through email at OPDCommunityEngagement@oswegoil.org or by calling the Oswego Police Department at (630) 551-7300.