The Forest Park Police Department and local business owners discussed how to address what Police Chief Ken Gross called increasing public safety concerns in Forest Park, especially on main thoroughfares, at an Oct. 14 meeting at Village Hall.
“We’re here to try to come up with a solution to some of the problems that our businesses are seeing on Madison Street,” Gross said. “If you’re running a business and you have someone sleeping in your doorway, it probably has a negative impact on your business.”
Gross said that, compared to last year, the village has seen an increase in removal calls, retail theft, welfare checks and criminal trespassing, though panhandling is down. He added that many of the people whom police are called to address struggle with mental health and self-medicate with alcohol or drugs, which can lead to disorderly conduct in front of businesses.
But there are a few things business owners can do to navigate such behavior outside their stores.
First, businesses can post a sign that restricts trespassing or verbally direct a person to move.
“The way trespass works, via our local ordinance or via state law, is you have to give the person notice that they can’t be on your land,” Gross said.
Businesses must also be willing to sign a complaint against the trespasser and stand before a judge.
“There’s got to be a willingness for you to go to court,” Gross said. “That’s where a lot of people get a little standoffish that they just want the person arrested. They don’t want to do the follow-through and go to court.”
Gross said locals can report disorderly conduct, even if there’s no trespassing on private property.
“If someone’s behavior is so egregious and so shocking and alarming that you’re disturbed by it, that can fall under the category of disorderly conduct, which is a lower level misdemeanor, but still an arrestable offense,” Gross said.
Without reports of trespassing or disorderly conduct, village police aren’t allowed to relocate a person forcefully.
“If someone’s in front of your business and they’re just acting sort of foolish, if we don’t have a complainant and we go up and we see them screaming and yelling, unless we think they’re in danger, to themselves or someone else — then they can maybe have medical transportation, but we can’t always force someone onto an ambulance — we might end up just letting the person stand there and scream,” Gross said. “Just because people are exhibiting behavior that you think is abnormal or poor doesn’t mean that we just show up and put them in handcuffs.”
Addressing root causes
Village Administrator Rachell Entler said at the Oct. 14 meeting that the village is working on addressing homelessness in Forest Park.
“We’re very well aware that the unhoused population comes with other non-criminal concerns,” Entler said. She added that village staff and commissioners are in communication with the nonprofit Housing Forward and other organizations that hire people with social work and mental health degrees. Entler said the village has a social worker that works with the police department, but the biggest barrier to providing more resources to the village’s unhoused population is a lack of funding.
“Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin and I are trying to find ways that we can apply for grants or get assistance from some of the organizations that can come in and assist us,” Entler said.
Melin-Rogovin, who is on the board at Housing Forward, added that “Anytime I work with a police officer on Madison Street, I find them extraordinarily compassionate and helpful. They do their job, they’re well trained, they understand their role, but they’re also treating people with dignity and respect, which I am very proud of.”
Gross said that individuals experiencing homelessness and mental health issues often come to Forest Park because of its proximity to the CTA Blue Line station, a spot that Gross said is popular because it’s at the end of the train line.
“I’d say probably 80-to-90% of our Narcan deployments are at 711 Des Plaines,” Gross said of the CTA station location. “Heroin users are going to the city, coming back, overdosing, and then we’re bringing them back to life in an ambulance.”
At 711 Des Plaines, weekly resources like public showers also attract people to the end of the train line, plus additional services at the nearby Forest Park Public Library and the community center’s community fridge. While the library doesn’t have a licensed social worker on site, though Gross said the police department thought they did, they do have a safety coordinator.
Gross said other factors contributing to Forest Park’s large presence of unhoused individuals, some with mental health concerns, include local hospitals treating and releasing patients with psychological issues, that Forest Park serves cheap, single-serve alcohol, and that residents are often willing to donate money, food or resources to those in need.
Gross said the SAFE-T Act has also affected the number of individuals in need in Forest Park. Signed into law by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in 2021, the SAFE-T Act says that when police arrest someone for a nonviolent offense, they cite them and release them rather than holding them in jail until they post bond or are sent to the courthouse.
“I have yet to meet a police officer who is in favor of the SAFE-T Act,” Gross said. “We’re seeing spikes in people who do get arrested that are back out on the street.”
And Gross said a federal ruling is the reason why village police don’t often address the people who stand in the street on Harlem Avenue and I-290 asking for money, work or food. In 2021, a federal judge ruled that panhandling is allowed in public streets because of First Amendment rights.
“At most, that would be a traffic citation, which isn’t an arrest,” Gross said.
Correction, Oct. 22, 10 a.m.: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of deployments to 711 Des Plaines Ave. About 80-to-90% of Narcan deployments occur at the CTA station. We apologize for the error.