- Home
- Government
- Police
- About Us
- Divisions
Divisions
Adminstration
The Office of the Chief oversees the day-to-day operations, balances demands for service and resources, and sets short term objectives and long term goals for the Police Department.
The Deputy Chief is responsible for the development of the Police Department budget. He works with the Command Staff to identify the operational needs, oversees special projects, and acts in lieu of the Chief of Police in his absence.
The Chief's Administrative Assistant is primarily responsible for auditing the department's reports, reporting crime information in accordance to the CLERY Act, the federal government Uniform Crime Report (UCR), the State of Illinois Racial Profiling data collection, gather and disseminate intelligence for DeKalb County, and provide crime analysis that assists in guiding police operations and protecting our community.
The Support Bureau includes community relations, court security, evidence, records and training.
Records
The Records section is responsible for the collection and retention of reports, citations, parking tickets, arrests, and all other data pertaining to the functions of the Police Department. Records staff are charged with maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of all documents to ensure the credibility of information in the administration of justice, from the point of police contact to the adjudication of cases in court. They are also responsible for the timely fulfillment of subpoenas, report requests, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and any other internal or external requests.
Records personnel also provide service at the front desk in the public lobby, which includes walk-in customers in need of police service and general information.
Communications
The Communications Division understands the importance of good communication between our agency and the community we serve. The direct link between the public and our officers is the Telecommunications Center, which is staffed 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.
Their primary function is to receive, prioritize and assign calls for service to both Police and Fire departments. They are certified in Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) and are certified through the State of Illinois. They also monitor radio traffic for Public Works and the Fire Department as well as monitor all security cameras throughout the Police Department and the Municipal Building.
They are staffed with 1 Communications Coordinator, 11 full time telecommunicators, and 6 part time telecommunicators. In 2016 they entered 45,566 police calls, 5661fire/ambulance calls and answered over 22,094 911 calls.
Investigations
The Investigation Division consists of 1 Commander, 1 Sergeant, 6 Detectives, and 2 Detectives/SRO (School Resource Officer). The division is divided into 4 sections. Crimes section primary responsibilities are investigating general criminal cases requiring follow-up investigations; major criminal offenses assigned directly to the division; investigations of license applicants; and background investigations of police personnel.
Units
Click through the units below to learn more.
The School Resource Officer program is a cooperative effort between the DeKalb Police Department and the DeKalb School District. Detective Lockhart, Officer Sullivan, Officer Remnes work together and serve as the DeKalb Police Department School Resource Officers (SRO). They are sworn police officers assigned to the DeKalb School District. Officer Sullivan primarily works at the junior high schools, Officer Remnes primarily works at the elementary schools, and Detective Lockhart primarily works at the DeKalb High School.
The School Resource Officer serves as a teacher, counselor, role model, and advocate for students, families, faculty and staff. The SRO is not the school disciplinarian, nor does he perform any other staff function. He brings full service, personalized policing to an important segment of our community. With a full time presence in the schools, he is an easily recognized and approachable resource for students.
These officers handle the majority of complaints requiring police action in the schools, and they interact with students and staff on non-criminal matters. They also are assigned to investigate criminal offenses committed by juveniles who are referred to the division and make determinations as to their disposition and referrals. They also investigate abuse cases committed against juveniles. The SRO is under the direct supervision of the Criminal Investigation Commander. He also works closely with the principals, dean of students, and school security officers.
The goals of the SRO are:
- Provide students, faculty and staff the opportunity to meet and interact with a police officer in a non-confrontational setting.
- To act as a deterrent to crime in the school buildings, on campus, and in the community surrounding the school not only through uniformed presence, but also by developing positive relationships with students, faculty, staff, and community members.
- To provide for the safety and security of the school’s students, faculty, staff and visitors.
The Targeted Response Unit (TRU) consists of 1 Sergeant and 2 Detectives. The Targeted Response unit’s mission is to implement a proactive, problem solving initiative, consistent with the department’s community oriented policing philosophy. TRU will address street crime and quality of life issues in order to improve public safety and enhance our overall quality of life.
TRU is also responsible for monitoring all registered sex offenders, parolees, individuals wanted on warrants, and gang members residing within the community. Additionally, TRU will be on the front line of proactive policing through the pursuit of known offenders, by initiating street level narcotics-related investigations, and supporting other Operations Bureau functions.
Operations
The Patrol Division continues to strive for service excellence as they deal with a wide variety of activity. In addition to handling calls for service and self-initiated activity, community policing remains a high priority with efforts concentrated on high visibility patrols and interaction with local businesses. Officers remain vigilant in preventing criminal activity as they patrol in cars, on motorcycles, foot and bicycles. Criminal and traffic law enforcement and accident investigation are just some of the areas that officers focus on each day. Preventing and displacing crime through walk patrols, bike patrols, business and vacation checks, all contribute to making the City of DeKalb a safer town.
The Patrol Section consists of 1 Commander, 11 Sergeants, and 37 Patrol Officers. Patrol shifts are 10 hours in duration and officers are assigned to 1 of 3 shifts.
Units
Click through the units below to learn more.
- Bike Patrol
- Community Service Officer
- Canine Unit
- Domestic Violence Unit
- Field Training
- Honor Guard
- ILEAS
- Motor Unit
- Resident Officer Program
- Special Operations Team
In the Spring of 2001, the DeKalb Police Department started a Bike Patrol program. Currently, 9 officers are assigned to this patrol with the days and hours varying. The officers received a week-long training covering bike safety, traffic laws, nutrition, bike maintenance, tactical moves, and various maneuvers to control the bike.
A Bike Patrol officer is more approachable when patrolling. The officer is encouraged to stop and talk to residents and establish an open and positive communication with the citizens. The Bike Patrol is especially effective during special events and parades. The bike officer can be on roadways and in parking lots providing patrol and still only be seconds away if needed to respond to a call.
There are many benefits in having a bike patrol:
- Bicycles can go where cars can not.
- Bike officers have more contact with our youth and become positive role models.
- Costs are less for bicycles than for cars.
- Much more ground can be covered on the bike.
- Officers are out of their cars and are more accessible to the public.
- Officers can approach silently on the specially designed bikes.
- Subjects can not generally outrun officers on bikes.
In 2002 the DeKalb Police Department began a Community Service Officers (CSO) program. The CSO is a non-sworn part-time civilian member of the Police Department responsible for various functions within the department. They assist sworn officers by performing non-hazardous law enforcement duties that had traditionally been handled by sworn officers. Though still willing to provide a vast array of services to the community, sworn officers have the opportunity to concentrate their efforts on more serious problems.
The DeKalb Police Department has deployed a canine team to support our Patrol Division. Officer Nicholson is assigned as the handler to our canine, Kota. Kota is a Dutch Shepard that came over from the Netherlands, although he was born in Poland. Our canine team went through training at the Illinois State Police Canine Training facility. Kota is a dual purpose drug detection and patrol dog, trained in narcotics detection, handler protection, suspect apprehension, building and area searches, article searches and tracking.
The Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) was established in 2013 with establishing goals of reducing calls related to domestic violence, improving domestic violence investigations, working in concert with Safe Passage and the State’s Attorney’s office, and to increase intervention to prevent violence associated with domestic situations. The DVU reviews domestic reports and arrests, upgrades charges when necessary, and follows up with victims for orders of protection. The DVU also works with Safe Passage to provide roll call training for officers and to orient Safe Passage staff to relevant police procedures.
The Field Training Program is designed to prepare new officers to perform the essential duties of a police officer and to enhance the professionalism of the department through a contemporary, vigorous training system. The goal of the program is to produce a self-reliant police officer who is trained to modern professional law enforcement standards.
The training is structured as a 4 phase, 14-week program that prepares new officers in the various aspects of police work. The trainee rotates between 3 different Field Training Officers (FTO’s) during the 14-week program. The FTO’s provide a link between the Basic Law Enforcement Academy curriculum and the police performance expectations of the community and the department. The trainee also completes a week of training in the Investigation Division upon successful completion of training in the Patrol Division. The trainee also spends time working with the Telecommunicators and the School Resource Officer.
The trainees are oriented to the department and given instruction in city and county geography and jurisdictional boundaries. There is also instruction in the topics of community policing and ethnic diversity to enhance the trainee’s knowledge of these matters. The trainee interacts with other area law enforcement agencies and becomes familiar with the Northern Illinois University campus and its geographical boundaries.
The DeKalb Police Department Honor Guard was formed in 1996 for the dedication of Moudy Park. The Honor Guard continues to participate in the Moudy Park ceremony annually. The Honor Guard participates in other events as well. They have been in parades, Mayoral Inaugurations, and at funerals. Members of the Honor Guard are also members of a multijurisdictional color guard made up of officers from the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, NIU Police Department and Sycamore Police Department.
The DeKalb Police Department has an officer on the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) Mobile Field Force. Realizing that individual departments cannot field a team of officers to handle major crowd control incidents ILEAS forged the Mobile Field Force, a contingent of police officers from ILEAS member departments, to handle such incidents. The officers from different police departments are equipped and trained through ILEAS to handle crowd control, protests and riots.
An officer is also assigned to the Weapons of Mass Destruction Special Response Team (WMD SRT). The WMD SRT teams are locally deployed SWAT teams that are specially trained and funded by ILEAS to deal with human threats in a hazardous materials environment. They often act as regional tactical assets for local agencies.
The Motor Unit began service on September 8, 2004. It had been over 20 years since the department has had a Motor Unit. The Motor Unit is used for traffic enforcement, special events, and as a tool to interact with the public, especially children and youths. Traffic enforcement is stressed in high crash locations and in residential neighborhoods. These locations chosen will be where an officer in a marked police car would not be able to monitor traffic and take the necessary enforcement on traffic violations. Because of the unique characteristics of a motorcycle, its maneuverability, agility and size, officers have the ability to access many locations. Motorcycles offer the advantage of going places where a patrol car is unable to go.
Officers assigned to the Motorcycle Unit are known as motormen and attended an 80-hour course put on by the Northwestern University's Department of Public Safety and Harley-Davidson Motorcycles. Today, the department has 3 motormen.
The motorcycle is leased from Kutter Harley Davidson in Janesville, Wisconsin. Each motorcycle is leased for three years. The motorcycle is a low cost addition to the fleet as the department grows and it helps control fuel expenses.
The DeKalb Police Department announces the implementation of an enhanced Resident Officer Program (ROP) within the city. Successful in other communities such as Elgin and Oak Park, this will be a pilot program for DeKalb. The Resident Officer Program of DeKalb was created to improve the quality of life within individual neighborhoods in the City of DeKalb by assigning an officer to reside in designated neighborhoods and directly partnering with residents to find solutions to neighborhood problems.
The first area to be identified and staffed by the resident officer program was the public housing neighborhood located in the Lewis Court Apartments on North 14th Street, beginning in November 2004. An officer has resided at that location ever since, being equipped with a take-home marked squad car and given the responsibility of assisting with neighborhood issues both within the housing complex and the adjacent Pleasant Street neighborhood. He has performed these duties while remaining on a traditional patrol shift. An additional bilingual officer has assisted with neighborhood meetings in the area as well.
The enhanced ROP program placed a police officer in a city-owned home directly into the Pleasant Street neighborhood. The home, one that was in need of rehabilitation, was improved adding value to the neighborhood and improving its aesthetic qualities. This ROP officer is not only a point of contact for policing problems, but will also be able to reach out to other agencies in an attempt to solve whatever problems may be facing the neighborhood.
An additional ROP officer was added to the South 5th Street, East Taylor Street and Sweet Park neighborhood. This officer is provided an apartment in this neighborhood and engages in similar duties as the other ROP officers. This officer pays special attention to the Taylor Street Plaza high-rise community and acts as a bridge between the police department, residents and management of the high-rise. The ROP officer also addresses neighborhood concerns and continues to have a positive impact on the neighborhood.
Objectives of the ROP officer include:
- Acting as a liaison with other city departments and social service agencies
- Assisting residents in the development of neighborhood initiatives and organizations
- Empowering residents to work together to improve their neighborhood, and participating in youth activities by building relationships through direct involvement, education, and mentoring
- Identifying and prioritizing crime, community, and quality of life issues within the neighborhood
- Serving as the neighborhood’s police officer through the development of close working relationships
- Working with neighborhood groups to solve identified problems
Eight DeKalb Police Officers are members of the DeKalb County Special Operations Team (SOT). The DeKalb Police Department, Sycamore Police Department, and the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office implemented a joint Special Operations Team providing a tactical response to critical incidents in DeKalb County. The presence of a highly trained and skilled law enforcement tactical unit at critical incidents has allowed for the resolution of critical incidents while mitigating the risk of serious injury or death to citizens, law enforcement and suspects. The agencies involved in SOT recognize the benefits of a well-managed "team response" and the effect the multi-jurisdictional team has a force multiplier that enhances the participating agencies' abilities to resolve high risk situations in a safe manner.