Joliet police take over late night shifts at Joliet Junior College campuses

The Joliet Police Department is taking over overnight duties for police protection at Joliet Junior College.

The arrangement provides for Joliet police to handle calls for service that come between 2 and 6 a.m. on the JJC main campus on Houboldt Road and at the City Center Campus downtown.

JJC has its own police force. But calls between 2 and 6 a.m. have come in at a rate of about two a year, Joliet Police Chief William Evans told the City Council last week.

“They don’t have the overhead to have two people doing midnight shifts doing absolutely nothing,” Evans told the council.

Evans said JJC will deploy its staff during busier times of the day with Joliet police available to handle overnight calls.

The council gave its approval to the arrangement under which calls for service between 2 and 6 a.m. will go to the city police force.

Evans said Joliet police typically would respond to such calls anyway.

“I felt comfortable doing it,” he said at a council meeting June 17. “I don’t think they’ve had any calls in those hours yet this year.”

The agreement allows either JJC or the city of Joliet to end the arrangement with 90-days notice.

The City Council voted 9-0 for the agreement, which was scheduled to take effect immediately.