State Police plan massive trooper layoffs, to close five districts

[Starcom21]

http://www.sj-r.com/news/x99764408/State-Police-plan-massive-trooper-layoffs-to-close-five-districts


State Police plan massive trooper layoffs, to close five districts



The Illinois State Police will lay off more than 450 troopers and close five district offices starting in September, acting State Police director Jonathan Monken said today.

With expected retirements, the layoffs will reduce the number of sworn state troopers by about 600, or 30 percent, Monken said. The force currently has a little over 2,000 troopers.
The five district offices are those in: Litchfield, with 35 sworn officers; Carmi, 33 officers; Pecatonica, 31 officers; Macomb, 32 officers; and Chicago, 182 officers. State police have 22 offices now.

 

[datainmotion]

Not to make light of this, but I don't know what's more shocking - that they would lay off that many Troopers (and close the Des Plaines HQ) or that there are TEN riverboat casinos in Des Plaines?!?

 

[N9JIG]

Not to make light of this, but I don't know what's more shocking - that they would lay off that many Troopers (and close the Des Plaines HQ) or that there are TEN riverboat casinos in Des Plaines?!?

The 10th riverboat is going in Des Plaines is the 10th in Illinois, not just Des Plaines. Others are in Alton, Elgin, Joliet (2), Metropolis, Rock Island, Peoria and a coupe other towns.

The 10th license is a long and convoluted tale, it had been in East Dubuque, that casino closed and it was put up for grabs. Eventually it ended up in Des Plaines, where construction is set to begin soon.

Back on topic, the Des Plaines HQ ("Maine North Facility") also houses several other state agencies as well as the ISP Communications Center, Cook County Sheriff's 9-1-1 Center, CMS, ICC, etc. so it won't be closing. If all this goes thru I would expect that the State Police cuts back the "District Chicago" post to a skeleton crew, leave the Comm Center as is and let CPD patrol the Chicago expressways. The outlying expressways, such as the Edens, IL-394, I-57 and I-290 outside the City limits will either have to retain ISP patrols or a deal with the Sheriff would have to be made for those patrols, kind of like what Milwaukee County does in WI. The Tollways will retain District 15, they are paid from toll revenues which have held up and are not part of the State budget crisis.

As for other posts slated for closing, (Litchfield, Carmi, Macomb and Pecotonica (Rockford)) it is likely that the post boundaries will be redrawn and operations absorbed by neighboring posts. It is unlikely that the entire complements of the affected posts could be laid off, I am sure that union contracts and state rules would require that the troopers be laid off in reverse seniority order, so troopers that were hired last would be laid off first, regardless of posting.

Just looking at an ISP District map, my first guess would be that they would redraw boundaries of the remaining districts. Now with StarCom21 in place it is not too difficult to reassign dispatchers for areas as it was in the VHF days.

Based on the closings noted in the article I would guess the following:

District 16 could be parceled out to District 1 and 2 (Boone going to 2, the rest to 1).

District 14 could be split up with District 7 getting Warren and Henderson, the others going to 20.

18 could be merged with 9, especially if 20 is expanded by the closing of 14.

19 could be split with 13 and 12, maybe 22 could take in a portion.



Not having a dog in the fight on this one, I would not be surprised if a totally different scenario was developed, those are just my wild guesses.

 

[Gator596]

Anytime I see talk of cops (or fire or EMS) getting laid off it is because someone is having a hard time convincing the concil or board that their budget needs to keep growing. Is that the case here?

 

[werinshades]

I just read this and can't believe it. Chicago Police manpower is already dangerously low and re-adding the burden of expressways will put them in a deeper hole. For all those youngins out there, State Police agreed to take on Chicago expressways in exchange for lottery sales at O'Hare Airport back in the early 80's. Wait till you hear the politicians screaming on this one. I guess Quinn wants to be a one term governor..

 

[datainmotion]

The 10th riverboat is going in Des Plaines is the 10th in Illinois, not just Des Plaines.

Rich - thanks for the clarification.

I grew up in Des Plaines in the 70s and was having trouble visualizing where they would put 1 let alone 10!

Life on the Expressways should get pretty interesting if they go back to CPD...:roll:

 

[Starcom21]

Area state police district may close | state, area, close - Local News - The Telegraph

 

[gewecke]

...Just shined up the mini 14 the other day.
n9zas

 

[gewecke]

saukvalley.com | State Police to lay off 460 troopers

n9zas

 

[W9NES]

I live in Indianapolis,Indiana and saw the report today on WGN TV 9 news at 12Noon Today Weds 3-24-2010 and it was there lead story.The Commander of Chicago Police said there was no way that they would be able to have CPD units on the Interstate.They did not have enough manpower to patrol all the areas that fall under State Police.

 

[BCFlash]

The local press in Rockford makes it sound like there will be no state police patrol at all in northwest IL, the District 16 area. I find that somewhat hard to believe but we shall see. District 16 used to be called 1A, a sub district of District 1 in Sterling. I assume the new boundaries will have Dist. 1 assume all of the NW IL counties. Some counties in that area, like Winnebago, have a large enough sheriff's office and many local PDs that they might be able to pick up the slack but some of the more rural counties are going to have problems.

 

[Starcom21]

Ill. State Police to lay off 460 troopers - Illinois | State & regional - bnd.com


Sheriffs blast plans to close ISP districts
By MAGGIE BORMAN
Area sheriffs are drawing a bead on a proposal to close five Illinois State Police districts, saying the move would be dangerous to both law enforcement and residents of the counties they serve.The acting director of the State Police has threatened... Full story

http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/state-37990-district-county.html

 

[Starcom21]

Sheriff offers substation if ISP District 18 closes | district, state, police - Local News - The Telegraph

Macoupin County Sheriff Don Albrecht said Thursday he intends to offer the Illinois State Police a substation at his department if a proposal to close ISP District 18 in Litchfield becomes a reality when the state budget is finalized.

 

[Starcom21]

Sheriffs predict hardship if state troopers cut - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

Sheriffs predict hardship if state troopers cut
As they ramp up a crackdown, Illinois sheriff’s deputies see their jobs getting harder in dealing with methamphetamine and other problems if massive State Police layoffs become reality.