In July, Police Chief Ken Gross and Deputy Chief Chris Chin let an ICE agent into the Forest Park Police Department after he claimed someone was stalking him.
In August, Gross announced his retirement, which he said he’d been considering for years. The same month, Mayor Rory Hoskins told NBC 5 Chicago, “I want my residents to know that we feel a mistake was made” in allowing the ICE officer into the police station.
“I do not want our officers or employees, in any capacity, assisting ICE,” Hoskins previously told the Review. “I hope that people in Forest Park and the wider community understand that Forest Park wants to be a welcoming community.”
A month after the ICE agent came to Village Hall — and as residents continue to voice their distrust in village officials — commissioners spoke at the Aug. 24 council meeting about the rift between the community and themselves and voiced their support for the Forest Park Police Department.
“I think what happened is our officers made a judgment call in real time, under real pressure and without any guidance from us up here in advance of that on how to deal with something if it came up,” Commissioner Maria Maxham said during her commissioner’s comment. “We didn’t have anything in place. It wasn’t the police and the leadership who didn’t have it in place.”
She continued to address how the situation should have been handled after it happened.
“I think what could’ve happened better in this situation is, from the get-go, to sit down with police leadership, Mayor, and say, ‘This thing happened and, guess what, I’m not real happy with this. This is a bad look, it’s a bad feel, people don’t like this. Let’s work together and stand together, privately and publicly to address this and fix it and make it better,’” Maxham said. “But I’m afraid that what’s happened now is it’s become us-versus-them. I feel like I’m being asked to choose: Do I support immigrants or do I support the police? Because it can’t be both, but I’m not choosing. I’m supporting both, and I think that all of us should do that. I think that’s what the hard decision is here, but that’s the right decision.”
To make it less of an us-versus-them situation, Maxham told the Review that the village needs to engage the community. She said she’s meeting with Betty Alzamora — who’s on the park board and has spoken at the last couple council meetings about designating ICE-free zones in municipal buildings and modernizing Forest Park’s welcoming resolution.
“I think it really is important that we address this, but I also want to make sure that the police leadership is involved too because they are the experts obviously in law enforcement,” Maxham told the Review. “It has to be a joint effort.”
Maxham said at the Aug. 24 council meeting that two things can be true: Forest Park residents feel unsafe, and the Forest Park Police Department does a good job.
“It is true that some residents feel unsafe as a result of what happened,” Maxham said, citing multiple comments she’s heard and emails residents have sent her. “There’s good reason why they don’t feel safe. We all have seen, on documented occasions, ICE using excessive force, and even deadly force in situations. That’s really scary, and that’s not something that I want around here. People need to feel safe and they need to be safe.”
“The other thing that’s true is I’ve heard a lot of people maligning our police department, especially the leadership. I want to push back really hard against that because I don’t think it’s true that our police in general, or our police leadership, are doing a bad job or did a bad job. I think the situation that happened at Village Hall was very nuanced and there was no perfect solution that could’ve happened,” Maxham said. “If someone comes into a police department and says, ‘I don’t feel safe,’ the police have to do something. Another option would’ve been to allow some confrontation to happen in Village Hall, and I don’t think that would’ve been a great solution either. I think ICE agents are notoriously bad at deescalating situations, and I personally would want an ICE agent removed from a situation with two teenagers because I think that’s the recipe for a bad situation I wouldn’t want to happen either.”
Commissioner Ryan Nero gave his commissioner’s comment after Maxham, agreeing with her.
“I saw police acting in a way to protect and serve an individual. It just happened to be an ICE agent. I think that’s what we forgot. I do support our Chief of Police, and I support our police department,” Nero said. “There’s been some disparaging things I don’t agree with said about the police department. …They are the first people we call when something’s wrong. They are the first people you call when you need help. And instead of sitting back and perhaps collecting the facts, maybe we acted and threw them under the bus a little bit.”
“I wish we could’ve maybe collectively come together as a community and talked about what had happened in its entirety before jumping to conclusions,” Nero said. “Our term is four years, but this is what these people do for a living. I think we need to sit back and really think hard before we make comments and things that could quite easily affect their reputation and/or their livelihood.”
Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin also lauded the police department during her commissioner’s comment.
“I have asked of them and displayed the same respect for our first responders throughout my time in village life. The first thing I decided when I joined as an elected official was that I was not going to second guess any decision that an individual officer makes, but that I was going to take the opportunity to ask questions and seek clarification and become more informed in my role as an elected official,” Melin-Rogovin said. “One of the reasons I ran for office was those same first responders — our police, our fire — came to my house and served me in my time of greatest need. I reject, categorically, any notion that, by asking questions, that I do not respect or care about them. In fact, I seek to support them in doing so.”
“I think most of us all share a common goal, and that is to keep Forest Park safe,” said Commissioner Jessica Voogd. “I’ve personally witnessed, on many occasions, on-duty officers exhibiting professionalism, restraint and kindness. It is a constantly evolving process, and I respect the work that they do in partnership with the community, but also we need to listen to the community. As elected officials, it’s our duty to listen and protect them. I haven’t heard anyone here, or anyone that wrote in, denying the humanity of federal employees or disparaging police, but we’re all human beings and we all make mistakes, every single one of us.”
“The important thing to do, and the responsible thing to do, is to understand that, when missteps happen, we need to step back and evaluate those and figure out how to move forward,” Voogd said. “A lot of things can be true at once, but we also have to have the strength to say, ‘I like you and maybe this didn’t go as it should have and we’re going to look into it and we’re going to talk about it.’ It doesn’t mean that anybody is disparaging anybody. It means that we’re trying to better ourselves as a community.”
Hoskins, who always gives his commissioner’s comment last before adjourning the council meeting, did not mention the Forest Park Police Department or ICE.