Chief Mann says village P.D. saw one-year call volume increase of 21%

By Benjamin Cox on January 6, 2019 at 12:00pm

The South Jacksonville Police Department was busy last year.

At over 20,000 calls, last year was one of the busiest for the village department in recent years.

Village Police Chief Tim Mann offers a look back at the year that brought them new cameras in the squad cars, an improvement to the station’s information technology, and Luger the K9.

“In closing for 2018, it’s been a lot of ups and downs, but overall it’s been an incredible year for us. We actually closed the year – call volume wise – at 20,761 calls, which is up 4,353 calls from 2017. We’ve added some great officers. Unfortunately, we lost a great sergeant to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. We have a K9 going in to 2019 that’s trained and on the street that’s going to be phenomenal for us. Outside of that, we’re just going to batten down the hatches and continue to train with the officers. The trustees have been incredibly supportive in terms of allowing us to make sure all of our equipment up to date and getting some issues resolved in terms of our inner IT systems.”

At the Village Board of Trustees meeting on Thursday evening, Chief Mann presented Officer Tyler Griffin with the South Jacksonville Officer of the Year award. Mann commends the 3-year village policeman for his work.

“All of our guys go out and bust their tails every day, every night, every shift – making their calls, checking their vacation checks, and so on. Officer Griffin was nominated from within our department as the 2018 Officer of the Year really because of his keen interest in narcotics interdiction. He single-handedly took more narcotics, as well as firearms and other weapons, than other officers actually combined. He truly went above and beyond to help this problem that every community is suffering from, and that is the use, sale, and concealment of illegal drugs.”

Sergeant Colt Gerdes, whose resignation was accepted Thursday, has become a Conservation Police Officer, reportedly announced in his resignation letter.