The Forest Park Police Department has 34 officers and needs only four more to be fully staffed.
Chief of Police Ken Gross said he thinks the department will be fully staffed by next year, the first time that has happened since he started in the role in 2021.
Of the department’s 34 officers, three are in the police academy, two are undergoing the department’s field training, and one is on light duty, assisting with investigations and administrative assignments instead of patrolling streets.
This leaves Gross with 28 officers for daily patrol.
But the department shortage will soon be alleviated with the next step toward a fully staffed department when, on Aug. 16, three new officers are sworn in, bringing the total number of officers to 37.
Gross said he plans to hire one more officer this year, which will bring the force to a fully staffed 38 officers in 2025.
Until then, the village police will be slightly understaffed, as they have for the past several years.
And during the summer months, when officers often take vacation, those numbers are even lower.
“We’re not in a horrible position,” said Gross, who has been with the Forest Park Police Department since 2000. He added that the department does have quite a bit of overtime costs, which impact its budget.
At the end of 2024, the police department is expected to be nearly $400,000 under budget, primarily because of vacancies in full-time officers. But because the department isn’t fully staffed, nearly $900,000 has been paid in overtime, or more than $165,000 over budget.
Two of the police department’s administrative lieutenants are currently assisting with patrol, Gross said. To avoid such overtime, last summer, Gross and Deputy Chief Christopher Chin helped with patrol.
“We’re in a better position this year than last,” Gross said.
The police force has increased in size since Gross became police chief. The number of officers has grown, following a decrease that the Forest Park Police Department, and many others around the country, saw in 2020 as a result of social unrest following the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd by police officers.
“The events of 2020 decimated the profession,” Gross said. “It made this profession a little less attractive.”
In 2017, 51 candidates took tests as the first part of the Forest Park Police Department’s hiring process, a number Gross said is “the norm” for the department. In 2018 and 2019, there were over 40 candidates. But in 2021, that number dropped to 18, then 16 the following year.
The number of potential local police officers is on the rise, though. Last year’s tests got the number of candidates back up to 30. Tests in February of this year saw 39 candidates.
The highly publicized police murders of 2020 also affected officers who were already employed.
Gross said that officers who were hired around the same time he was took over for “Vietnam-era” officers, who were retiring after about 30 years. Gen-Xers, like Gross, are retiring sooner, he said, after about 20 years.
“We’re leaving early, and I think the events of 2020 made people make that decision,” Gross said. “This isn’t the only department that saw resignations, retirements. It was a nationwide thing.”
The path to becoming a police officer
It’s about a nine-month process, from the time a candidate is sworn in to when they go on solo patrol, Gross said.
Following a written test, candidates must undergo an oral interview, psychological exam, polygraph and a background investigation. They are sworn in to a police department and serve as probationary officers for 18 months, Gross said. Only then do they start at a police academy, which is a minimum of 16-weeks of training in Illinois. They then begin at least four months of field training at the Forest Park Police Department.
The Board of Fire and Police Commissioners, appointed by the mayor and approved by the village council, hires new police officers. Gross said he sits in on oral interviews and occasionally offers advice to the commission.
While the number of people interested in becoming a Forest Park police officer has decreased since 2017, then increased, the number of police officers has only increased since Gross became chief of police.
The year 2021 started with 37 officers and ended with 31 after four retirements, two deaths, one transfer to another police department, and a hire. But that number has steadily grown. At the end of 2022, the police department had 33 officers and, to close 2023, 36 officers.
Three new officers will be sworn into the Forest Park Police Department this month. Two will be attending College of DuPage’s Suburban Law Enforcement Academy and one will go to the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Gross said he hopes to hire one more person later this year, which will give him 38 officers for patrolling in 2025, after they undergo the village’s hiring process.
But having fewer than 38 officers doesn’t mean that the Forest Park Police Department must forgo its services. Instead, it prioritizes differently.
For example, Gross said the police department can do more traffic details and DUI checkpoints when they are fully staffed. He added that he should have one more person in the detective unit to work on investigations.
“Our investigation commission might have to put misdemeanor offenses on the lower end of the chain,” Gross said.
“I’m happy where we’re at,” he added. “I know we’re going to get where we need to be, hopefully by 2025.”