Looks like District 19 post is going to become like the weigh station in Crossville
What's next...?
CARMI—We’re just receiving word that state budget cuts are impacting locals in a big way—if those locals are employed at the Illinois State Police post 19 in Carmi.
We’d heard last week that this kind of cutback was coming. However, 19 is such an outlying post (the next nearest would be DuQuoin, Effingham or deep south) we didn’t think it would happen here.
That’s really going to rob this part of the state of an ISP presence.
Hmmm…looks like a perfect storm is brewing for criminal activity here. What will governor Quinn come up with next?
Other ISP closures in wake of an order by the state to cut 30 percent of the budget include Des Plaines, Litchfield, Macomb and Pecatonica, none of which can probably afford (crime-rate-wise, anyway) to lose that police presence. All of this is set to take place ‘some time this fall’…if the budget is cut as much as Quinn is proposing.
The layoff will affect more than 460 troopers according to ISP director Jonathon Monken, who took over after embattled former gov Blago’s appointee, casino boat security maven Larry Trent (who didn’t know a damn thing about running ISP, hence the current problems) stepped aside last year.
It’s just an errant thought, but…wouldn’t it have been a better idea to see if any of these super troopers were willing to take a cut in their unbelievably-high salaries in order to at least keep their jobs, before wholesale closure of posts? ESPECIALLY ‘administrative’ positions. But nooooo….like everything else in Illinois that gets the ax when there’s a ‘budget crisis,’ nobody can look at salary trims…they just take boots off the ground by cutting people off at the knees.
More as we get it.
Short URL: http://www.disclosurenewsonline.com/?p=2693
Posted by Chris Beavers
on Mar 24 2010. Filed under White.
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So, will D-19 be done away with totally? Will the troopers stationed in this district be assigned to another district? Anybody know???
That is what I was wondering because if not I’m never wearing my seat belt again!
Well there has to be patrol done in our counties, I wouldn’t stop wearing my seatbelt if I were you. I am sure that they will be assigned to a surrounding district, then their headquarters will just be further away for them.
I just heard a minute ago from a very credible source that 5 districts will be closed in the state and D-19 is not 100% sure at this point if they will be one of the five closed.
Dwight Eisenhower, even if they close the district post, they will stretch out Districts 22 and 13 (and whatever other border districts there are to 19) to make coverage. it’ll just be more thin.
Yeah I figured that, but one can hope. On a more serious note, I don’t think I understand why they have to completely close 5 districts. Instead why not cut back 1-2 troopers per district?
The troopers are already spread extremely thin in each district as it is. I know that sometimes there are only 2 troopers patrolling the entire D-19 on any given shift. If they close the entire headquarters then the state can save money on things such as utilities, up keep of the building, etc., etc….and probably dispatchers. It is a sad ordeal!
You know what Quinn’s doing….he’s putting pressure on us out here to imagine what it would be like without ISP to respond to such events as traffic accidents on busy highways, not be readily available for ‘conflict’ investigations (since so many deputies and sheriffs are getting into trouble) and all that kind of stuff…then we beg and plead for him not to make these cuts, and he says “Well, I’ll have to raise taxes,” and we’ll say “we don’t care! we need our state troopers!” and Quinn will say “SOLD!!! Put those troopers back to WORK!!” before going on to lose the election to the Republican contender.
And then we’ll be stuck with paying higher taxes AND $62K-92K annual salaries (plus retirement, let us not forget) for these state troopers who were originally supposed to be only the governor’s security detail.
I submit that the cuts don’t go far enough and ISP could now be ran with, say, only 4 or 5 districts for the entire state like DNR is operated.
With the new (and expensive!) Starcom radio system that ISP now uses, they should no longer be geographically bound to such a large number of small disticts. Appears to me that a lot of duplicity could be eliminated in that manner.
That is most likely what he is up to.Strong Arm us into higher taxes and we’ll ask for them.I wish there was a way to impeach this NUT!
And the problem with that is that they’ve got it set up so that when the head gets cut off the snake, two more pop up to replace it.
There’s got to be wholesale turnover. You can’t keep the foxes all comfy in the henhouse simply because they have feathers sticking out of their fur.
We’ve got to each make an effort to recruit friends, family and even strangers to the voting rolls, because these freak liberals are hellbent on ensuring that illegals are going to be given amnesty before November gets here…and they’ll take credit for it, so the liberal Dems will get those illegals/now-legal votes and the incumbents will stay in office. The only way we can battle this is to swarm the phone lines when the amnesty vote comes up (it worked before, but might not this time) and then return the favor by recruiting conservative voters. We’ve got to clean house and we’ve got to do it ESPECIALLY on the state level, because the states are allowed to challenged this godforsaken Obamacare BS, and Quinn doesn’t want to challenge it.
So get them out. out outoutout.
The ISP have the cream of the crop for the most part. They are highly trained and go through a selection process that weeds out most bad apples.
That being said I also feel that the ISP has been a serious misallocation of resources by using them to run radar and write seatbelt tickets. Granted that tickets bring in revenue but the quota of ticket, oh, excuse me, the “projected contacts” has been counter-productive in my opinion. Most troopers are self-motivated anyway and do not need a supervisor to dictate how many tickets they need to write a month.
Had the troopers been allowed to work as independent law enforcement agents they could get involved in solving some actual crime in Southern Illinois, not just the speeders on the highways and the seatbeat violators.
As I drove to Paducah Ky recently on 24 I saw 3 ISP troopers writing tickets along this 4 lane highway that rivaled the Autobahn and could probably handle traffic at 100mph. I told a buddy up from Texas that I would bet within a couple of miles from this stretch of highway, out in the rural backwoods, there were probably meth labs in full production while the most highly trained and highly paid law enforcement officers in the state are out here writing tickets.
This is not slamming the troopers, they are great guys for the most part and deserve our respect but it is what they are told to do. To top it off, several little podunk police departments want to mimic the ISP so they ignore what is going on in their towns and go out to the highway to write tickets like the big boys do.
In my opinion, the automobile traffic should take a back seat to the drug traffic in Southern Illinois.
Dennis, I have to say I agree with you wholeheartedly. These are the best-trained, most highly-skilled, professional law enforcement officers out there…and their skills are being wasted on highway patrol. So the answer is you either use the people in ways that a commensurate with their skills and training…or you train them to write speeding and seatbelt tickets and spare us taxpayers the expense.
It’s too bad things are so upside down in Illinois.
Mr. Bridwell, how do drugs get from one place to another? In Cars. How do you find drugs in cars? Traffic stops. Do the state police write a lot of tickets? Yes. Do the state police make enough drug, warrant, and other misc. arrests to justify the amount of traffic they run? IMO, yes. Should the troopers focus on areas besides the interstate? Yes. But overall, the state police really are a productive agency, and the troopers themselves just do what they’re told, and I’ve found that most, really wish they weren’t always running traffic, but again, you do what your boss tells you.
http://www.dailyregister.com/newsnow/x532578820/2009-one-of-safest-years-on-District-19-records
Just thought I’d cut & paste some District 19 statistics for 2009, as listed in the DR.
Doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the budget or closing of the Carmi Post, but may be of interest to readers.
The Troopers will most likely continue to produce the numbers and will only be required to drive a further distance to the post. My concern is largely the Investigations Unit and Crime Scene Services. These are specialized and highly trained personnel that are, in my oppinion, the most valuable resources to our local department, as we simply don’t have the manpower and specialized training in these areas. In 2009 the Harrisburg Police Department made over twice the criminal arrests(1,550) as the entire staff of District 19 but still requested State Police assistance with major crimes. Point being… We clearly deal with more crime and STILL enlist their help for serious offenses, even though their primary enforcement is clearly traffic violations.
There are other and better ways to trim the fat in the State’s budget. Is any other division of state government taking a hit like this?
Gingerbread man, thank you for that wealth of information on drug interdiction.
Actually, while traffic stops do sometimes yield a drug bust, they are far more often a ruse to stop someone already suspected for something (i.e. the oft used broken taillight or no license plate light) Yes, some really dumb people have been stopped with a bong or crack pipe sitting in plain view but this is more than likely a stoned user and not the manufacturer/distributor unless they have began using their product.
When I was assigned to the Narcotics Division in Texas in the 80s we would sometimes have to resort to getting a patrol unit to stop a suspected trafficker but usually we would make our case otherwise, often undercover.
While I was sheriff in Lawrence County we made most of our cases through investigations and informants usually but once in awhile through a traffic stop. I always said that unexpectedly finding drugs on a traffic stop (without previously suspecting the individual) was akin to a blind hog finding an acorn. A smart doper doesn’t draw attention to himself i.e. speeding, expired license plates, etc. so he won’t give the excuse to be a random traffic stop.
The state trooper with special title are more train and awsesome like the crime scene, dci , accident reconstrution . THe ever day trooper as very little trainning to deal with regular crime how ever they know a lot about traffic. I hope they switch things up send some of 22 and 13 regular trooper to 19 and 19 guys to cover 13 and 22. It will be a good experance for some of the 19 guys to work 22 like the cario part. I beleave they will recive some real expearnce working down there .
Sir, I certainly agree that there are other affective ways of making drug cases. The only thing that I particularly wanted people to pay attention to is the common sense aspect of “how the drugs move from point A to point B.” In a car. I’ts fine and dandy the things you did in Texas and even in Lawrence Co. (neither of which I’m very familiar with, so I don’t know the ins and outs and problems and solutions of each place), however, it seems like you’re just another anti-traffic enforcement southern Illinoisian. Seems like everyone the world over abhors the fact that the State Police enforce traffic laws and that some municipalities and counties run traffic, althought I hardly doubt its to “feel like the big boys.” I guess the point is, yes, the state should focus on more than just writing tickets on the interstate and that yes they should work on more drug investigations, but you can’t negate the fact that they need to continue to run traffic in a strong way, especially in Southern Illinois. Down here, its all about local cops not writing tickets because their Sheriff needs to win the election, pat the locals on the ass unless they’re doing something hellacious, without the troopers running traffic, this would be nothing more than a constant pile of motorist complaints and crashes. I’m not disputing your points, because they’re valid points, I just wish everyone will look at the other side of things without always making statements akin to “I HATE THE ISP BECUZ DEY ROTE MY CUZIN A SEATBELT TICKETT!!!11″ Traffic laws are important too, whether anyone else thinks so or not.
Gingerbread man, I fully understand your point that there does need to be enforcement of the traffic laws but my analogy would be caring for a scratched finger while ignoring a sucking chest wound.
To give you a bit of idea where I get my opinion about the traffic situation in Southern Illinois, I worked in Galveston Texas for over 20 years, I drove back to my hometown in Lawrence County at least once a year and later when my father’s health deteriorated, sometimes several times a year. Many times I would travel from the Texas Gulf Coast, through East Texas, Arkansas, skirt past Missouri and into Southern Illinois without seeing a law enforcement officer. Then I would see usually 3 or 4 on I-57 between Cairo and where I turned off at Mt. Vernon. Sometimes it would be city police out there running radar while there was no town in sight.
My point about that is that their services are undoubtably needed more within their city limits (even if their city has annexed part of I-57) A city officer’s duty is to protect and serve the citizens of their city and not to run radar on the interstate highway. Their presence in their city may prevent crime there.
As far as the traffic enforcement being a vital drug interdiction instrument, I seriously doubt if (real) traffic stops account for 1% of the drug seizures in this country although some troopers have made some sizable busts along the interstate highways.
well, Im sorry but your wrong. The state troopers have more training than any other law agency in Illinois.
Mr. Bridwell, you sir seem like someone I wouldn’t mind having lunch with to discuss things like this, however, I fear we would be kicked out of the establishment over annoying the other patrons. Ha.
I certainly agree that towns such as Mounds need to focus on patrolling their actual town before plowing I-57. Certainly, I see no problem with them stationing out there at times to write some tickets, but I think they need to protect their town first and work the interstate later…Seems like you’re agreeable to that, as long as they don’t spend a full 8 hours ignoring their town..right? Also, a drug arrest is a drug arrest, and I think we’ll probably continue to disagree on the level of effectiveness that traffic enforcement has on drugs. Naturally, I’m sure you are more knowledgable on it than I am right? However, I’ll stick to my guns, that traffic enforcement is still a necessity, and still provides a function (including interdiction) that shouldn’t be ignored. It’s just a point of aggravation that the State gets such a bad rap for running traffic, after all, criminal patrol in the towns and counties is for the city and sheriff departments right? No one will ever agree. I happen to know of a place in southern Illinois that they complain horribly about the State Police doing ANYTHING within municipal limits, so what do you do? They’re not wanted in towns doing “real” police work, nor are they wanted on the highways and interstates running traffic..like State policing agencies elsewhere, so what gives?
Madhatter is correct on the ISP training, I think their academy is like 6 months long where the locals get 8 weeks. (These time lengths may be out of date since I went to the academy in 1978) Traffic may be a big part of their training but they are trained in several areas.
Gingerbread man, I would enjoy going out to lunch with you to discuss the topic of law enforcement in Southern Illinois. I am retired and have plenty of time. Write me an email at dbrid53@yahoo.com and let me know when you are going to be near Marion sometime around noon and we can get something to eat. Preferably a sunny day so I can ride my Harley. That 17th Street Bar & Grill out by I-57 has some good BBQ if you like that.
We won’t get too loud that they will have to throw us out, lol!
Dennis, the ISP academy is currently 25 weeks in duration. The standard non-ISP Illinois Full-Time basic academy is between 400-480 hours, depending on where you get it, I believe. And the Illinois Part Time basic academy is 9 months of 8 hour classes Every 3rd saturday (approx) with online lessons between actual classes.
Although the troopers get more training than the local officers at the academy, one has to wonder what exactly they are being trained in. Many of them sure do struggle with handling calls non-traffic related and some have no idea what probable cause to make a criminal arrest means. If they actually made the change to a local law enforcement agency, many would have to take a refresher course in the law and how it is enforced.
The ISP is one of the most dignified institutions in America!! They need to cut 32 million of their budget, how about forgoing the 28 million dollars allocated by the state to put broad-ban internet towers in southern illinois (a technology already on the way out) . How about protesting the 10 million dollars given to build a new sports arena. People forget what these troopers of the ISP have given of themselves and their families to do the job they do!! Most of them take their job very seriously and they are here to stop the headlines that make your pages!! Yes, things are political and they will never stop being that way and if you talked to any trooper they would probably tell you how they would like to run things, but so is the nature of the job when you are funded by the government!!! To all those out there that think they are over payed for the job they do…..then get your butt out there and do what they do. It’s a thank-less job 24/7 …365 !!! What a wonderful world we would live in if life was perfect and humans didn’t need someone to help re-enforce why you should stay straight and narrow
Well, they’re highly versed in the law, however, when you get in the groove of handling mainly traffic, you tend to get rusty on criminal law, I would think. However, the troopers I’ve had the fortune of witnessing on criminal cases, have always done a decent job. Better than some local cops I’ve witnessed, but thats how it goes.
I’ll agree with you, gingerbread-man, also slcupcake…we have actually asked troopers, who were in the process of issuing seatbelt tickets during a “detail,” what they’d rather be doing, and to a man they answered that they’d rather be taking on the crime and corruption (specifically official misconduct) they know for a fact is going on. They’re highly trained from the outset…they need to be allowed to do what they are trained to do before these ‘skills’ diminish by writing seatbelt tickets…
also, to Dual Quads, even tho IDNR has only 5 districts throughout the state, SOS Police also only has 5 districts total, but their officers are still only assigned to small areas. Say District 5 DNR officers are assigned to 1 ISP district. SO the fact that they have substantially less posts doesn’t really change the layout of how they “patrol.” Also, ISP has tremendously more officers than DNR or SOS Police and thus need more posts to accomodate said Troopers.
Road troopers are definitely overpayed. All that training to become speed and seatbelt cops…what a waste. Sure it is all political, but it does not change the fact that these guys are getting paid anywhere from $60K – $90K to write your kid a seatbelt ticket as he pulls into the high school parking lot or write somebody who works at McDonald’s who is barely getting by, a speeding ticket cause he was running late for work. Then they get all these federal grants to go out, on overtime, making more money an hour than some people make in a shift, to right more seatbelt and speeding tickets. Would it not be nice if some of this federal grant money went to fight the drug problem? Oh, it’s not the troopers fault, it is just frustrating when hard working people are getting stalked by the State Police Predators, while the people selling or using dope sit back knowing that all these grants paid for by me and you are doing nothing to fight them. Quit telling us that the mission is to save lives when the mission behind all the tickets is to bring in money. Drug patrols would not bring in the money…..let’s not kid ourselves about what these tickets are all about.
From what I understand, the State of Illinois is having a hard time paying it’s debts everywhere. The City of Sumner is always complaining that the state owes them several thousand dollars for water supplied to the prison, nursing homes say that the state isn’t paying them for whatever (Medicaid maybe?) I am sure more services will be cut before it is all over.
I’ll bet the folks on welfare don’t get laid off.
Good point.
The Democrats are in power and Welfare is one way they keep their followers in line. If they cut the Welfare payments, the Democrat offices would be torched, unless the left-wing media was able to convince the bums that it was the Republican minority’s responsibility. Remember, when robbing Peter to pay Paul, you can always count on Paul’s support.
Nope. Best way to get by in these times is to lay on your back with your legs spread popping out babies with a bottle of vodka in one hand and a joint in the other. Oh..and with a big screen tv in the back ground playing all-day pay per view.
David Pickering is right, welfare is one of the few things that is recession-proof.
Admin, I’m sure the troopers would rather be fighting crime and not writing seatbelt tickets. They have a huge bureaucracy in Springfield that will never allow them to do their jobs.
Dennis J. Bridwell, 100% correct. I love the way you put it and enjoy reading your posts.
I am not happy with all the cut backs when it comes to law enforcement. People expect them to be everywhere at once. Thats not going to happen. I know they are paid to serve and protect, but we need to stand up and let our representatives know that we are not happy with their spendig and cuts. We did elect them, and I think they should be held accountable to the people of this state. I am not in favor of the cut backs. Crime is at a all time high. It not just the drugs in our county. People who would not break the law is no2 doing so in order to survice. I would feel beter knowing that our streets and highways are a safter plect to be on. There are alot of single women/parents who work nights. What happends if they have a flat or wreck and no one in the area to call. Put these men back to doing what they are trained to do. You can bet your sweet ass if one of those politicians needed help they would expect them there PRONTO. UNHAPPY ABOUT THE CUT BACKS.