Mayor Marty Maloney and the Park Ridge City Council on Monday recognized a team of Park Ridge Police officers for their work apprehending a man who was posing as a police officer and inappropriately touching young women.
At the July 24 City Council Meeting, Interim Police Chief Robert Kampwirth thanked the teens who initially reported the subject and his actions to the police department.
“If it were not for their quick decision-making of reporting this, we would not have been able to catch this offender who was displaying predatory behavior and there could have been more victims,” he said.
Kampwirth said two younger female police officers posed as decoy targets for the subject, who approached them on the 300 block of South Lincoln Avenue, identified himself as a police officer and inappropriately touched one of the officers. The officers then identified themselves and pursued the subject along with two nearby undercover detectives, Kampwirth said.
Maloney commended Detective Sergeant Jean Delfosse, Officer Elle Czworniak, Officer Angie Leja, Detective Leonardo Garcia and Detective Michael Fitzgerald on their efforts.
He said the recognition extended to the work of the Park Ridge Police Department more broadly.
“We appreciate you, we absolutely do,” he said to the officers assembled in the City Council chambers.
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Kampwirth said the city’s police officers felt and appreciated the recognition.
“If you look at the news and what’s happening in the law enforcement world, sometimes we get a bad rap,” he said. “Not true here in Park Ridge. We have great support and we appreciate it and it makes us want to go out and do our job and do it well.”
Park Ridge police arrested the subject, a 38-year-old Streamwood man, for two counts of false impersonation of a police officer, two counts of unlawful restraint and two counts of aggravated battery, according to earlier reporting.