The hiring of a dozen part-time police officers in Harvey, although not sworn police personnel at this point, is an effort to get “boots on the ground and people in the street,” according to the city’s mayor, whose administration has seen a revolving door of police chiefs.
The 12 officers will undergo nine months of police academy training while shadowing Harvey police officers, although initially serving in support roles and not in active law enforcement positions, according to the city.
The plan, Mayor Christopher Clark said, is that the new hires, who bring a variety of experience and include military veterans and current military reserve officers, will eventually become full-time officers with the department, which has 31 patrol officers.
“My hope of course is for them, should they be successful, to become full-time officers,” Clark said. “We definitely need to increase our overall police roles.”
While declining to say what the optimum number of patrol officers should be, Clark said that his priority in the cash-strapped city is to boost eyes and ears on the street.
“At the end of the day, I have yet to see a crime actually stopped because we had an extra person in booking, or an extra person in records,” Clark said.
The officers will be instrumental in achieving public safety and community policing initiatives, Joseph John Moseley II, the city’s third police chief since Clark took office a little more than two years ago, was quoted in a news release.
“They are joining a law enforcement agency that has embarked on a new journey toward new levels of excellence and distinction,” said Moseley, who was a sergeant with the Chicago Police Department.
Clark last month held a meeting open to city residents to discuss public safety initiatives in a city that has so far seen more than 20 homicides, although the mayor said that many homicides are out of the reach for police to stop.
“We need to make a distinction between the types of homicides,” Clark said, noting some are the result of disputes between people “who decide to pull out guns and shoot each other.”
“How can the Police Department stop something like that?” he said. “Putting more officers on the street may act as a deterrent, it may not stop it.”
Undetermined hours, pay
Clark said that while the new officers would be part time, he did not know how many hours each week they would work or what their rate of pay would be.
The officers, while also working for the city, will train this fall through Southwestern Illinois College’s police academy.
According to the Belleville-based college, the basic training course includes all aspects of entry-level law enforcement training including citizen interaction, community oriented policing, investigative skills and firearms training.
Harvey 1st Ward Ald. Shirley Drewenski said the hiring of the part-time officers is a good move, and residents in her ward feel their overall safety is good.
Now in her third term on the council and having lived in Harvey for all of her 59 years, Drewenski said residents are seeing greater police presence on the streets.
Having been a resident of the city when major industries and retail centers were thriving and Harvey’s coffers were flush with revenue, she said she understands the city is trying to do the best it can with limited resources.
“In the 1970s and ’80s we had over 100 officers,” she said.
Drewenski said that while she doesn’t support Clark all the time, she backs the efforts he has made.
“He is trying his darndest to move the city forward,” she said. “Overall, I love his passion, I see his vision.”
Changes at the top
Clark, an attorney, was wrapping up his first term as a city alderman before winning a two-person race in April 2019 following a February primary in which seven candidates, including then police chief Gregory Thomas, were seeking the mayor’s job.
Clark defeated Harvey Park Board President Anthony McCaskill in the general election to replace four-term Mayor Eric Kellogg, who had been barred from seeking reelection due to the passage of a term limit referendum championed by Clark, one of his fiercest critics.
Thomas was replaced when Clark brought on Eddie Winters, a Chicago police lieutenant, to lead the department, Winters was put on leave in late January 2020 then dismissed by Clark after just eight months on the job.
Winters, a 25-year CPD veteran and former state representative, had been one of Clark’s most prominent early hires.
Winters was replaced by Robert Collins, formerly police chief in Dolton. Collins resigned in early February after about a year on the job. The 28-year law enforcement veteran was returned as Dolton’s police chief this past spring after the April election of Tiffany Henyard as that village’s mayor. Moseley was brought on board following Collins’ resignation.
With the city heavily in debt and perpetually having financial struggles, Clark said officials are “trying to improve our public safety with limited resources.”
“It’s not as if we have a boatload of money,” he said. “We’re trying to do as much as possible with the resources we have.”
The city is in arrears on payments to Chicago for Lake Michigan water and borrowed heavily to finance what was ultimately a failed attempt to renovate a hotel in the city, which was later demolished. Also, the state comptroller has, since February 2018 been garnishing a portion of the city’s sales tax revenue to fund pension obligations.
“I keep putting it out there, the city is $149 million in debt, and that is something that was inherited and it is extremely difficult to build when you are $149 million in debt,” Clark said. “Our debt has debt.”
Other initiatives
During last month’s community solutions meeting, issues such as dumping and abandoned homes that dot city neighborhoods were discussed, the mayor said.
The city has launched a pilot program under which it will offer, for $1, vacant homes the city owns, with the application period running through the end of this month. Goals of the program are to prevent and reverse blight as well as stem population loss, according to the city.
Buyers need to pay two years’ worth of estimated property taxes upfront, and the city will hold the deeds for five years to discourage speculators and flippers. Buyers are also required to bring properties up to code, with the city offering reimbursement to cover part of the cost.
Harvey officials also said the city has received grant money that will be used to replace 625 streetlights and 610 traffic signal lights with more energy efficient light-emitting diode technology. The city expects to save $175,000 a year in electric bills as a result.
The new streetlights will be brighter than the ones they’ll replace, which helps from a public safety standpoint, Clark said.
The mayor insists that Harvey is making progress, and that “for every negative I hear there will be 10 to 15 people commenting on the positives.”
“We have had about 30 years of issues, it didn’t just start under the previous administration,” Clark said.