Shrinking Government?
Something we can get behind - except it seems to have disappeared:
- Amends the Cook County Forest Preserve District Act. Provides that 91 days after the effective date of the amendatory Act: (1) the forest preserve district board's authority to appoint and maintain a police force is terminated; and (2) the Cook County Sheriff's Department shall exercise primary jurisdiction over the territory within the forest preserve district. Effective immediately.
The Squirrel Police are yet another needless patronage-heavy drain on taxpayer dollars. It ought to be phased out via attrition and it's duties rolled into the sheriff department. We have no idea why the bill isn't appearing at the link, but it either moved forward or was withdrawn - which would be a shame. Any chance to shrink County government is a good thing.
Labels: county
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
44 Comments:
The sponsor of the bill received some much political pressure and threats, the bill was withdrawn.
I am surprised the Democrat Machine hasn’t already clear cut it all; and then leased the land to a developer for a hundred years. Daley’s Machine must have missed that scam?
That termination issue has fortunately been struck down.
Forest Preserve guys-if you truly know them, have a group of really good guys that will do anything to accommodate or assist another Agency in a heartbeat.
Much better job than being one of Darts minion jailguards or bailiffs.
Blame the cook Co. Civil Service Commission for not offering any recent testing opportunities.
Rangers Max and Bob
Sneaky move by Crespo and Dart. I think once preckwinkle loses Chicago election she will put a end to this. It’s her department technically. Funny thing that even if this passes there will be zero tax payer savings. Dart started this move because he knows the sheriffs jurisdiction is shrinking yearly as more towns incorporate more areas so he is just trying to take more area. Even Chicago coppers don’t want the sheriff in the city with the Chicago initiative.
The Tree Police...
Isn’t Fred Crespo, the one who started this bill a gun grabber??
http://www.gunssavelife.com/il-state-rep-fred-crespo-high-capacity-magazines-turn-regular-firearms-fully-automatic-weapons/
Squirrel police, that’s funny but ironic considering our own department is top heavy with nuts.
One thought: You properly criticize the Sheriff's office for repeatedly screwing up the Electric Monitoring program - but you want to give them the Forest Preserves. What gives?
Good I hope this means Jerry Springer clown AP is out of a j o b. Idiot former UIC PD. His own officer sued him as racist. Are you still dyeing your hair Al?
This is fallout from that gutless Tree Cop not doing anything to stop the disorderly in the picnic shelter last year.
I’ve read articles in the past where they said cutting the department would save taxpayers 10,000,000 a year. Correct my math if I’m wrong which I’m sure it might be off a slightly but http://www.city-data.com/county/Cook_County-IL.html says that in 2000 there were 1,142,743 county owner occupied homes. Divide that by 10 mil and that means tax payers are contributing a whopping $8.75 a year to the department. Then when you factor in all of the other properties such as businesses and properties that are not owner occupied that comes out to maybe $4 dollars a year property tax payers are contributing to pay for this department lol? That so called 10 million will just be spent on other county stuff and you’ll still be paying a portion of your property taxes to the forest preserve district regardless. Don’t see any need for change here. No actual tax payer savings. But then again my math could be off so don’t quote me
That bill made someone important very angry.
Remember your FOP leader was a "tree police", that's where he came from, go figure. And u
all thought he was the answer.
Those forest guys got an easy pass. Just open the gates in the morning and close them at night.
I remember years ago the woods never closed. Have it that way again
Cook county is too big!
Break Crook County in half!
It disappeared because Preckwinkle is looking very bad in this run off. She has come out looking like the vindictive and angry person she is. The Forest Perserve Police Department is the Cook County Board Presidents armed patronage army. Nobody gets hired on that agency other then those the county board president puts on. She will need this army to continue as board president after her failed big for mayor of Chicago.
Retired guy in Winnebago County. The Forest Preserve District board is mostly an unpaid position. The Forest preserve police are Winn Co. Deputies who bid to the spot and formerly usedd a couple of reserve deputies to supplement the patrol duties.
I was a so called squirrel police before I became a Chicago Police Officer. Talk about patronage, LOL. There are just as many political patronage and clout promotions on CPD than there. Take a look at our command staff. I took an exam to get on, was state certified, went to CPD academy in metro class, and did not have any phone call. Just like I did getting on Chicago. People promoted there were mostly done by clout, just like CPD. by the way the Sheriffs police want nothing to do with the Forest Preserves, and if they are assigned to patrol them, guess what, they wont go in them except on calls, or use them as a hole on midnights.
Eliminating through attrition means a bunch of useless assholes keep their jobs, and pensions, until they decide to quit. If it needs to be eliminated, then eliminate it by firing everyone and let the Sheriff's Office take over.
Totally useless can't handle anything
Live in Mt Greenwood house went up $5,000.00 time to sell the house move spend that pension check in Florida tax free !
I don’t think the sheriffs department can adequately serve and protect our current squirrel population. We need to keep those who know and understand our diverse populations of grey, red and fox squirrels. Just because their fur my be of a different color and some have bushier tails than others does not mean they don’t deserve the same respect as other animals.
a pretty useless patronage police department, for sure. The one police department that I would like to see return is the CTA police. Those officers were great and kept things down on the CTA. Now, it is rare to see a uniformed officer on the trains or even in the stations.
oh no.
whose job will it be to spend his day looking for guys having sex in the woods???
Come on now, those trees can be dangerous.
Hey i wonder if Kevin still has his chain key, to get in and out of Forest Groves?
Was a long time ago, when they still had the title of Ranger instead of police. If you were in a district that had a forest preserve in it, we wound up handling most of the emergency calls. True, back then, the sheriff had primary jurisdiction, but the very long wait times meant that we had to do our jobs and theirs also. As bad as the politics in the FPD is, at least they are these. Don't forget, Dart has gutted the Sheriffs police.
If Prickwrinkle’s budget was fair they would start by eliminating all those other admin departments loaded with managers, supervisors, no-show clerks etc.
Eliminating the Squirrel Police will only divert that budget to lesser responsibility patronage and freeloader freaknick outdoer activities programs.
Hope these guys (lower ranks) of the CCFPD are at least absorbed into the CCSP.
A rotten, vindictive anti-Police PrickWanker payback stunt.
should apply to all forest preserve districts.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Live in Mt Greenwood house went up $5,000.00 time to sell the house move spend that pension check in Florida tax free !
House went up $5,000.00. What are you saying. Value of house , reassessed value went up $5,000.00?
Soooo..... does it mean I can now fish after dark and there will be no park rangers to chase me off or fine me? Sounds great!
Lmao the ignorance regarding the forest preserve police is outstanding. The only political hires at the department are the commanders, deputy chiefs and chief. Anyone else below that including the patrol officers all tested and interviewed for the position just like any other department
Hearing Thursday:
Hearings
Counties & Townships Committee Hearing Mar 21 2019 10:00AM Capitol Building Room 122B Springfield, IL
The idea of letting the Cook Co. Sheriff's Police handle the preserves is a bad idea, considering the County is trying to get rid of unincorporated areas as it is. Nor is the CCSPD free of patronage hires; some of Dart's staff are pure patronage. "Consolidation" is a big buzzword with little substance, given the jobs still have to be done (see also forced 911 center consolidation, which often lowers service quality). Perhaps someone can research why the FPDPD was formed (they were originally given the title of 'Ranger' decades ago), since the CCSPD existed back then also.
The idea that they are not 'the real police' is the same rag said about Metra PD, college and university police, Water Rec District cops, etc. who aren't in the same daily grind as CPD...but remember, they all face the risks of being in uniform and carrying a police badge/button/star/shield in today's world.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/house-bill-would-merge-cook-county-forest-preserve-police-with-county-sheriff/
Article on the merger, looks like it might happen.
So now with the bill we are forced to pay more and more and pension benefits and the pay the clouted for doing nothing!
Excuse the f out of me, but I never saw a Crook County cop in Dan Ryan woods except for the Toy 4 Tots parade. Even then 8 and 6 ran it
The sheriffs pilice is a bigger patronage job than the tree police, you really didn’t know did you
According to my first installment of 2018 property tax
Cook County forest preserve district pension and health care is funded at 46.03%
Cook County pension and health is 36.18% funded
The only hope is that they are dissolved and combined. I dislike people losing their job, but feel mostly top spots would go away.
If you compare acreage in cook county there is way more unoccupied forest preserve acreage then there is occupied unincorporated acreage in cook county. More crimes are committed in those occupied areas. Both the forest preserve police and the sheriffs police are full of patronage hacks who couldn't count their balls and come up with the same number twice. Years ago the forest preserve K-9 unit was transferred over to the sheriff's office. What do the Forest preserve cops do in the winter when preserve usage is low? Time to cut the fat and eliminate some of these folks and let full time officers from other departments work those shifts as part timers eliminating the cost of full timers pension and benefit costs. Time to question why the water reclamation district needs a police department also.
just eliminate cook county government already
“Forest Preserve guys-if you truly know them, have a group of really good guys that will do anything to accommodate or assist another Agency in a heartbeat.”
Sure they will, because they don’t have any real work of their own to do besides bust up a blowjob or fine the d lady bringing carrots to the deer. The problem is, they don’t know what they are doing with any real police work. They are not necessary and are a waste of tax dollars.
“The idea that they are not 'the real police' is the same rag said about Metra PD, college and university police, Water Rec District cops, etc. who aren't in the same daily grind as CPD...but remember, they all face the risks of being in uniform and carrying a police badge/button/star/shield in today's world.”
The only thing I’ve ever seen any of those cops use their badge for is to get a free meal or a discount somewhere. I’ve seen Metra police ask for a discount at the hot dog stand in the lobby of Home Depot. They are constantly asking municipalities to respond to their jobs because they all want to drive around and screw up traffic stops - you will never see a Metra cop actually ride a train or near a train station. The Water Rec police have a back room dedicated to getting drunk and sleeping in, and are a bunch of racists. They are the least “police” of any of these. Colleges MAY have a mass shooter - but few of them train or are equipped adequately to deal with it. These are all retirement jobs, patronage jobs for people too whacky in the head to even get on our department of nutjobs, or too stupid to pass all portions of testing at a municipality. And the forest preserve police falls in that category. And shame on you if you can’t admit it.
“Face risks...”. GTFOH. Your risk is paying full bill at Portillos.
the biggest Hack Police Dept. around is the CPD. So don't be too quick to criticize. And as far as incompetence goes, just look around.
Cook Vounty could privatize court security, look at impoundment court . Much better security than the bailiffs hired by cook county .
They do very little , overpaid mall cops .
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