West Cook News

Oak Park voters won't know until April 27 if the majority agreed to defund the police department. Unofficially, more than half of the ballots cast showed that the community is not supporting this idea.

Over 68 percent of the 9,700 voters answered no to the question “Shall the Village of Oak Park defund its Police Department?”

“This idea was brought to me in conversation by a few residents who felt that the village board should give residents more of a voice on this matter," Trustee Dan Moroney said in an interview, denying that the referendum was politically motivated.

Those rejecting the proposal say that the village has an “exemplary” police department and pointed out that police funding should remain since a 10% increase in the village’s crime rate from 2019 to 2020 has been observed.

Columnist Ken Trainor suggested there should be a combined effort between the community and the department to search for ways to “reform and reinvent policing that roots out systemic racism where it exists” that should be beneficial for both.

Trainor earlier described “defund the police” as “the worst slogan in the history of slogans.” He, later on, apologized for some of the comments he made.