Hebron police won’t turn off Facebook comments, will join regional law enforcement task force

The Hebron Police Department will continue to allow residents to comment on its Facebook page, and the department will join the McHenry County Major Investigations Task Force – a first for the tiny law enforcement agency.

Hebron trustees approved both measures at their Monday meeting. The Village Board voted 4-2 to continue allowing residents to comment on the department’s Facebook page, with Trustees Mark Shepherd and Shirlee Correll voting no. The board gave unanimous approval to the police department joining the county’s investigations task force, at a cost of $2,500 a year.

The Hebron Police Department has had a Facebook page since February, built and updated by Community Service Officer Darrick Tomlin. Earlier this year, trustees asked about policies for comments on that page, village attorney Michael Smoron said.

“I was asked to look at this specific case,” Smoron told the board.

He warned the board that, if people make inappropriate comments on a government-ran social media page, those comments cannot just be removed.

“The assumption is we can take it off. That is not true,” Smoron said. The issue is not with the content of a Facebook page, but someone posting something on the page that is “wildly inappropriate,” he said.

Some of the trustees who voted to keep comments on said it can help to improve the departments relationship with the community.

“Our response to what is said shows us in a better light ... that we are willing to talk about it,” Trustee Josh Stevens said. He runs the Hebron Public Library page, where he is also the head librarian.

“We have to learn how to talk to people ... instead of shutting the door and walking away” when opinions differ, he added.

The village may have had a “broken viewpoint” of the police department, Stevens added.

Village President Robert Shelton was elected in 2021 on a platform of cutting the department’s size. There are now three full-time sworn officers, including Chief of Police Juanita Gumble, and Tomlin, the CSO, Gumble said.

The small department was stretched to its limits over the weekend when officers could not find an agency to house a minor who was charged with attempted murder following an attack last week.

“There was not a place to put her,” Gumble said. A hospital would not take the girl as there was no immediate medical need, while the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services could not take her because of the criminal charges, and the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center did not have the appropriate medical staff for the child, Gumble said.

The Kane County Juvenile Center did ultimately take in the girl early Sunday morning – more than 36 hours after she was taken into custody.

“The four of us babysat on a very serious issue,” Gumble said.

A McHenry County Judge ruled Monday that the teen would remain in custody pending her juvenile court proceedings, and she was transported back to Kane County by McHenry County Sheriff’s Office personnel, Gumble said.

Joining the investigations task force can help the department if, in the future, big cases needing extensive investigation occur in the village, Gumble said.

The $2,500 annual cost for membership can be lowered to $1,500 if one of the Hebron officers, Nathan Muehl, is accepted to join the task force as an investigator.

“I am giving him the training he needs to be an investigator” and has submitted him for acceptance, Gumble said. If the task force does accept Muehl, it would rebate $1,000 to the department.

“They help if there is a murder, a rape, something when it is a huge, significant case. They help us through the whole court process,” Gumble said.