Ill. town gets grant to fight gangs

By Sheila Ahern
Chicago Daily Herald

The Wheeling Police Department received a federal grant worth more than $90,000 to help combat gang activity, Police Chief Bill Benson told the village board Monday.

About $20,000 of the grant will pay police officers overtime to help at-risk middle and high schoolers at a weeklong camp. The rest of the grant will be used to buy new computers for between 18 and 20 of the department’s squad cars, Benson said.

The computers are about five years old, he said.

"The updated computers and bandwidth will help send key information like background information and mug shots to our officers as soon as they need it," Benson said.

Recent gang activity in the Wheeling includes a 1999 murder when a gang member killed another gang member over drugs and a 2006 gang related retaliatory shooting that resulted in the death of a 16-year-old boy in front of his home, according to the grant application.

The grant is administered through the Cook County Judicial Advisory Council and while Wheeling has gotten money from the council

for the past 15 years, the amount has varied, Benson said.

"The way the economy is right now, we’re very pleased to receive the amount we did this year," he said.

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