When he took over as Des Plaines police chief last week, William Kushner inherited a department with problems that don’t have much to do with fighting crime.
Rather, the former Chicago lieutenant is tasked with rehabilitating a northwest suburban agency that has been a wellspring of scandal, litigation and unflattering publicity. Des Plaines is generally peaceful. The same has not been true of its Police Department.
Issues include an ongoing investigation into whether officers submitted bogus records related to a lucrative DUI enforcement grant that has been frozen; a lawsuit from a former deputy chief alleging he was forced to retire after reporting brutality to indifferent superiors; a lawsuit against the same former deputy chief accusing him of breaking up the marriage of a local lawyer; and claims of racial discrimination from former officers.
“I love a challenge,” Kushner said.
While city officials stopped short of directly criticizing former department leaders, they were clear about their hope that Kushner, a 29-year Chicago police veteran and former chief for Berwyn and Lakemoor, would change the agency. The new chief said he’ll assess everything from potential concerns about morale and public perception to details such as the design of the squad cars.
The department’s good police officers have been “shamed by a few,” said Mayor Martin Moylan.
“As mayor, I’m not happy,” he said. “There’s enough blame to go around, and certain actions should not have happened.”
One key matter hanging over the department is the ongoing city investigation into whether police over-reported DUI arrests in connection with a federally funded grant that pays overtime for officers to catch drunken drivers and seat belt violators.
In 2011, Des Plaines was awarded $116,190, the third-largest Sustained Traffic Enforcement Program grant in the state. The department had taken in $22,504 as of March, when city leaders told the Illinois Department of Transportation that paperwork submitted for the grant might have included arrests made by officers who weren’t actually working on grant-funded time, IDOT officials said.
IDOT cut off the grant and allowed Des Plaines to investigate. The former commander who oversaw the program, Tim Veit, retired shortly after the grant was suspended and could not be reached for comment.
The investigation continues, the mayor said. The new chief said he plans to ensure that “the issue with the STEP grant doesn’t recur.”
“This is probably going to be very unpopular, but if there’s culpability on the part of any personnel who are still here, then we have to address it,” Kushner said.
The department also faces a lawsuit from former Deputy Chief Richard Rozkuszka, who claims then-Chief James Prandini told him to “drop it” when he repeatedly accused Officer John Bueno of beating arrestees. After reporting the alleged misconduct to other agencies, Rozkuszka claims, he was forced to retire under threat of being fired in August 2011.
Moylan denied that Rozkuszka was forced into retirement, but he said “there could have been an issue with brutality” under the former chief, who held the job from December 2003 until he retired at the end of 2011. An acting chief filled the role until Kushner took over Sept. 4.
The city immediately looked into Rozkuszka’s complaints, Moylan said, and that inquiry led to Bueno being suspended in October 2011 and then fired in March based on an incident city officials have not publicly described. Another officer was suspended.
For his part, Bueno, who is of Mexican heritage, has filed a federal discrimination complaint against Des Plaines claiming that Rozkuszka called him “the dirty Mexican” and referred to him as Puerto Rican. Bueno alleges that the discipline against him came in retaliation for complaining about Rozkuszka.
Further complicating the situation, local lawyer Thaddeus Gauza sued Rozkuszka in March 2011 in Cook County court, claiming the former deputy chief sent romantic dispatches from his city email account to the attorney’s wife before the pair divorced, then moved in with her immediately after the divorce. The lawyer also claims Rozkuszka directed a detective to look into a child abuse accusation against Gauza. Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigators judged the accusation unfounded.
Along with those legal issues, the city in April 2011 agreed to give $125,000 to a former police sergeant who agreed to drop a federal racial discrimination complaint and leave the department. The officer contended he was suspended after complaining that officers at the police shooting range were taking target practice at a racially offensive poster showing an African-American male.
The city did not admit to the officer’s allegations in the settlement documents.
Rozkuszka, Bueno and Prandini could not be reached for comment. Moylan declined to comment on the specific racial discrimination claims but said the city would not tolerate racist behavior.
None of the recent departmental rancor was on display Sept. 4 as Kushner stood in a conference room at City Hall, sipping coffee and introducing himself to municipal staff and officers who ate cupcakes frosted with policing-themed designs of pistols, handcuffs and chalk body outlines.
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Kushner, 59, said he was still learning about the department, which has about 90 sworn officers, but he said taking over an agency that has drawn negative publicity is “not a big thing.” Kushner said that in 2006, as he started his tenure in Berwyn — whose previous department leader had been indicted — federal authorities were investigating an officer, James Formato, who would be convicted of aiding a violent crime ring linked to the Chicago Outfit.
In spite of the departmental drama in Des Plaines, Kushner is not facing law enforcement challenges like those that plague some suburbs and Chicago. Des Plaines’ violent crime rate was about one-fourth the statewide rate in 2010, according to FBI statistics. Among 22 cities other than Chicago with populations above 50,000, only six posted lower violent crime rates that year.
Kushner will be paid $136,000 per year in Des Plaines. As a Chicago police retiree, he also collects a pension that will be worth about $83,000 this year, according to the Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago.
The new chief said he plans to assess every aspect of departmental operations, from the scheduling of officers to the technology they use. He wants to explore trading the squad cars’ computers for iPads. The agency is also replacing its vehicles, he said, and he’s considering calling for a change in the paint job that would signal a shift in the department.
As for morale, Kushner said he plans to sit down individually with officers away from their supervisors so they might candidly share any concerns. He likes to “manage by walking around,” and officers shouldn’t be surprised, he said, when he starts showing up to calls and observing.
“You can’t lead from behind a desk,” he said.
Moylan, the mayor, said he hopes Kushner can put aside recent distractions. Though the new chief didn’t suggest specific remedies for all the department’s ills, he said he plans to improve the agency.
“(The Des Plaines police) were in the vanguard for a long time, and I’m going to try to get them back to that point,” he said.