File photo
File photo
Four Illinois towns have extended an interlocal law enforcement agreement to cover each other’s bases in the event personnel issues develop due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Riverside, Brookfield, McCook and North Riverside have signed an agreement that nullifies city boundaries if a community’s police force has too many officers missing work because of illness. Termed “No Boundaries,” the agreement is an extension of a pact in which the towns had agreed to combine dispatching services, central booking, housing and booking of prisoners, Patch reported. The pact was crafted two years ago.
The agreement to share enforcement duties will not extend past the pandemic. It would go into effect if a department is understaffed. Another town would dispatch available officers, who would be fully empowered to protect the peace in the community.
“I felt it was important during this national emergency and pandemic to contact our neighbors and get this agreement for the worst-case scenario policing,” Riverside Police Chief Tom Wetzel told Patch. "I use the words 'No Boundaries' because police officers would be answering routine calls in each other's towns, not just being called to assist another village and then leaving that village once the assist was completed."
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