Does Burr Ridge Have Enough Cops?

BURR RIDGE, IL – The Burr Ridge Police Department is authorized to have 28 sworn officers.

At a budget presentation Monday, village trustees asked whether that was enough.

By one metric, Burr Ridge compares well. Nearby Elmhurst, which is known as a busy area for law enforcement, is budgeted for 68 officers.

That's an officer for every 666 people. In contrast, Burr Ridge has one officer for about every 400 residents.

Now, Burr Ridge has 27 officers. The department is looking to fill the 28th position.

As for whether Burr Ridge has the right number of officers, Police Chief Marc Loftus referred the question to his supervisor, Village Administrator Evan Walter.

Walter said the village always could use more officers.

But he warned it might not be the right time for more officers because the village is losing two sources of income, amounting to a half million annually.

One is the 1 percent grocery sales tax, which the state has given to towns but is eliminating as of January. Towns can enact their own grocery taxes, but Burr Ridge trustees have not indicated they will.

The other source of income is rent from Nanophase Technologies, a longtime tenant in a village-owned building. It is moving out later this year.

"I'd like to add more officers, but I'd like to add revenue to help us be sustainable," Walter said. "Once we make an officer hire, then there's a pension obligation."

Later, Walter said the public works department also could use more staff, even though the police tend to "steal the show" during budget presentations.

For a 7½-square-mile town, the village has 13 frontline public works employees, Walter said. They must deal with many more road miles and mains than their counterparts in denser towns such as Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills, he said.

"It creates challenges for both police and public works because of how spread out the beats and the sectors are in our town," Walter said. "So we just said it would be nice to add more police. I think we should at least also consider adding to public works again for the same reason."

He said his administration department laid off two part-time employees recently, with the long-term goal of freeing up money for the frontline departments of police and public works.

"We were willing to take the loss first for efficiency's sake," he said.