Ill. department gets nearly $40K for gang, drug enforcement

By BOB Uphues
The Riverside Landmark

RIVERSIDE, Ill. — Riverside Township has ponied up nearly $40,000 in grants for local police departments, buying equipment that police will use to combat gang and drug activity.

At the Riverside village board meeting on March 3, Police Chief Thomas Weitzel displayed binoculars, digital cameras and video recorders and a laptop computer purchased with some $13,000 in grant money.

The equipment will be used not only by Riverside police but by officers in the West Suburban Directed Gang Enforcement (WEDGE) task force, which includes police from Riverside, North Riverside, and other near west suburbs.

"We certainly couldn't have budgeted this kind of expense," Weitzel said. "We sent Riverside Township a wish list, and I was astounded when we got our grant."

In all, Riverside got seven digital cameras, seven pairs of high-power, military-grade binoculars, a digital range finder, a digital hand-held video recorder and a military-grade wireless laptop.

Riverside Township Supervisor Richard Tuscher said he got the idea for the gang/drug enforcement grants while attending a seminar that featured a speaker who stated that while drug sales and violence were problems in the city, many gang leaders were making their way to the suburbs to conduct operations.

"We were able to budget enough to put lists together for the police departments in our township that were totally earmarked for drugs and gangs," said Tuscher, who is a resident of Brookfield's Hollywood section, which is in Riverside Township.

"We wanted to let them know each village has another system to go to [for funding]."

North Riverside Police Chief Anthony Garvey said that the equipment purchased with a $15,000 grant from the township had just arrived in the last couple of weeks. That equipment includes a dozen portable radios that members of the WEDGE task force can use while operating in the various towns.

"There have been some communication issues and these radios are programmed with the frequencies of all agencies, so they'll be able to contact whatever town they're operating in."

North Riverside also purchased 24 digital cameras, which it will issue to each of its patrol officers. Those cameras will replace the Polaroid cameras that have been in use for years.

The department also purchased a half-dozen pairs of low-light binoculars and four pairs of regular binoculars for surveillance done by WEDGE and North Riverside officers.

Meanwhile, Brookfield, which is not a member of WEDGE, used its $10,000 grant to purchase a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle that it will use to patrol parks and tough to reach wooded areas in the village.

"It'll be used to patrol parks at night in the summer time," said Police Chief Steven Stelter.

The ATV is a fully marked police vehicle, complete with emergency lights. It can hold two officers. In addition to the parks, the vehicle will be used to patrol forested areas such as South Kiwanis Park and areas near Salt Creek.

"It'll come in handy there," said Lt. Jeff Leh.

Copyright 2008 The Riverside Landmark