A lawsuit has been filed against the village of Indian Head Park alleging police paid to patrol unincorporated areas were instead responding to service calls in the village.
John Kielczynski, a retired police officer and 30-year resident of unincorporated LaGrange Highlands, filed the civil suit on behalf of Lyons Township in February.
The suit remained under seal until early October to allow the Illinois Attorney General’s Office opportunity to review it and decide whether to intervene, said Kielczynski’s attorney, Matthew Topic with Loevy & Loevy in Chicago.
Although the Attorney General’s Office chose not to intervene, Topic said he’s not disappointed, and Illinois law allows the matter to proceed as a civil suit.
The legal action is brought according to the False Claims Act, which allows a member of the public to file suit on behalf of a governmental entity which has experienced fraud at the hands of another government body, he said.
Kielczynski estimates he spent 18 months obtaining documents under the Freedom of Information Act to show 53 instances of alleged fraudulent billing for the police hire-back program. Police officers assigned through a contract with Indian Head Park to patrol LaGrange Highlands also responded to complaints in the village, the suit says.
“The more I dug, the worse it got,” he said. “For every FOIA that was answered, I had four more questions.”
Cook County Sheriff’s police have jurisdiction in LaGrange Highlands and other unincorporated areas. Lyons Township has contracted for additional police patrols for a number of years, because the county doesn’t have sufficient staff to dedicate an officer to patrol LaGrange Highlands, Kielczynski said.
LaGrange Highlands residents are assessed twice for police protection. Kielczynski said every six months he pays $139.22 for sheriff’s police services and $57.93 for the Lyons Township Special Police District, which funds the contract with Indian Head Park.
The existing two-year contract, approved in 2014, stipulates Indian Head Park will provide a sworn officer to patrol from 3 to 11 p.m. daily, as well as an additional officer on either Friday or Saturday from 7 to 11 p.m. for a total of 60 hours per week at a rate of $32.71 per hour.
The contract guarantees at least 3,120 hours of police service, but it doesn’t set a cap for a maximum number of hours.
Under a previous two-year contract, which was largely the same except for the hourly rate at $30.71, Kielczynski said he found numerous examples of additional hours billed, boosting two-week totals up to 150 hours, rather than 120 hours. The trend continued in 2014, according to the suit.
In addition, the suit shows 11 instances of fines for tickets written by Indian Head Park police in unincorporated areas were not paid to Lyons Township, but were collected instead by the village.
Topic said the suit doesn’t specify an amount being sought for the township, either in improper billing or damages.
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“The township is entitled to get money back to the extent it overpaid,” he said. “Our position is every two weeks there was a bill, and in each one of the bills, the amount was too high. There was no discount for the time when an officer was patrolling outside of the area of the contract.”
In addition to reimbursement for overpayment, the statute provides for a penalty of three times the amount of overpayment owed, plus up to $11,000 for each violation, Topic said.
“Ultimately, my client would like to see the township made whole for overpayments and for monies withheld and for this not to continue,” he said. “This costs taxpayers real money to engage in this contract, and they should get the fair value of what they pay for.”
Village Administrator John DuRocher said he can’t comment on pending litigation.
Village records show $106,755 was collected from the township for patrolling LaGrange Highlands from May 1, 2014 to April 30, 2015, DuRocher said. The contract allows for billing $102,055.20, DuRocher said.
The township program represents 5.5 percent of the Police Department’s budget for salaries, he said.
To date, $34,495 has been collected for the program in the current fiscal year, DuRocher said.
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