Future of Crystal Lake Park District police to be decided next week

After months of discussion, the Crystal Lake Park District board is due to vote next week on whether to keep or disband the park district police department.

Talks on the department’s possible dissolution have been active for months, with officials looking at multiple budget scenarios, the impact of the park district police and whether the decision should be on the ballot for voters to decide.

Reasons to disband the department include saving money and resources, since some park police responsibilities are duplications of municipal police duties, according to park documents.

If the park police department were to dissolve, the park district would hire private security to cover needed daily patrols, district Executive Director Jason Herbster said.

The estimated cost of having one to two private security shifts a day ranges from about $189,000 to over $323,000 per year, according to park district documents. The least expensive option is to have one shift per day of part-time park district staff to do patrols, which is estimated to be under $99,000 per year.

“There’s still work to be done,” Herbster said. “If our officers aren’t here, it has to be done by someone else, so the money is not necessarily going away.”

The budget for the park police department this year was $435,495, which included the $50,000 purchase of body cameras, Herbster said. Last year, the budget was $287,064.

Private security would not be able to issue citations, park district attorney Scott Puma noted.

The board looked over different budget scenarios in December, including a 50% reduction in park police budget and matching previous annual budgets that weren’t as high as this year’s.

Commissioner Linda Matthias said going on a ride-along with Chief John Longo allowed her to see the “intimate knowledge” the department has on park patrolling.

“I want to do the best for this community and I want to be fiscally responsible, but can you put a price tag on prevention?” Matthias said.

Started in 1924, the Crystal Lake Park District Police Department currently employs 11 people, Herbster said. There is one full-time chief and one full-time officer and the rest are part-time officers.

The department serves 58,000 people in Crystal Lake, Lakewood and a portion of Lake in the Hills with an acreage of 1,400 and is the only park police department in McHenry County, according to park district documents. The McHenry County Conservation District also has a police department.

Crystal Lake Park District officers spoke to the board last month in efforts to keep the department in place.

Lakewood and Crystal Lake usually received about 30,000 911 calls each year, park district police officer John O’Hara said. Last year, the park district police received 287 calls, he said.

“It’s all about prevention,” he said. “Police resources in the park is what’s causing that prevention.”

Prevention tactics like foot patrols are reasons why it is hard to measure park district police impact, Longo said.

“There’s a lot that we do that nobody hears about,” he said.

Crystal Lake resident Diane Miller, whose back yard is adjacent to Lippold Park, said she hasn’t seen an officer patrol the park since Longo started on the force.

“We used to see the park police all the time. Now we don’t,” she said.

Many commissioners voiced their support in last week’s meeting for keeping the park police. Treasurer Jason Heisler said the residents should ultimately decide on the matter.

“It’s a big deal,” he said.

The board debated whether to place a referendum on the general election ballot or create a survey to get more resident input. Board members questioned how to write a concise yes-or-no referendum question and how to educate the public on park police duties.

Last year’s comprehensive community survey showed many residents viewed safety as a “key priority,” said Kurt Reckamp, superintendent of recreation program and facility.

Ultimately, commissioners decided to make a final decision as a board at next week’s meeting on Feb. 15.

Community members “voted us in to make these hard decisions because they are not in this job,” Commissioner Karen Johnson said.