Posted May 2009
So, my wife received a ticket from the lone female officer on the Melrose Park Police Department. I am not just upset that she got the ticket….What really perturbed me was the manner and circumstances in which she got the ticket.
Seems there is lots of “bad blood” between Northlake, my former employer, and the surrounding towns.
It seems that Northlake Officer(s) have written tickets to relatives and even the officers of several towns. Among them are Melrose Park(hence the bad blood between the 2 towns?), Bellwood, and Chicago. Details are not being disclosed here but some people are really perturbed and it is not good.
More to come when this is resolved….
Update: July 17, 2009
Ok, now that this case is over–oh, did I say that the ticket was dropped? Anyway, After speaking to many people in the know, it seems this officer is a loner–you know the type–and I really don’t need to go any further than that.
During this whole process I have heard many disparaging comments regarding the relationship between Northlake PD and surrounding towns. Now, it may be just a couple of officers or so but this was not the case in the past. I remember many. many instances where I was the 1st Northlake officer to get to a hot call only to find that a Melrose Park, Stone Park, Franklin Park, or Cook County officer(s) was there already to back me up. I, in turn, would do the same.
I recall when I was a rookie riding with my FTO and we heard a stabbing call at the White Castle in Franklin Park. Well, we ended up being the 1st on that scene–not a very bright idea– and had a guy all full of blood with offender still on scene. To make this story short, we “detained” the offender a very short time until Franklin Park arrived. The officers that showed up were well acquainted with us and were grateful for our assistance.
Another revers case was when me and the same FTO responded to a domestic between a psychotic man and his older father. Well, we arrived to find that the Franklin Park tactical officers had just arrived. It turned out that we really needed the help as it was a chaotic situation with the son and father fighting it out and the son resisting to the extreme. This early experience made a very good impact on me and my opinion of the Franklin Park officers.
There are many, many more instances of this type of inter-departmental cooperation that I experienced.
I have been hearing stories of Northlake officers–hired under current Police Chief Dennis Koletsos— who have written other Police officers’ family members tickets. There is another shocking(kinda) instance where a Northlake officer(Who was his FTO??) arrested a relative of another neighboring town’s(mentioned above) relative for DUI. The guy was parked in his car and sleeping in the back seat! Well, the guy beat the case but only after spending thousands on a lawyer.
Now, I do not condone allowing people to break the law. I am only condoning discretion, especially to members of the Blue family.
I certainly don’t know all the circumstances of all possible instances but I do know that officers from neighboring towns are not speaking very highly of Northlake PD and that is a shame. Seems like Northlake’s leadership has succeeded in making them an island in that area?Working the Street: Police Discretion and the Dilemmas of Reform
You paint with a broad brush. Your hate for Northlake is now reaching to the new officers just because they were hired by this chief? You don't want to start sounding as bad as he is do you?
as bad as it is it lies with some of the old timers to have a sit down with these new idiots and teach them how it should be. all thats pounded into the heads of new officers is tickets tickets tickets. none of them know how to do real police work and coppers/families are NOT supposed to be getting tickets.
coppers/families are NOT supposed to be getting tickets."I thought that was discretion", not everything in the academy is golden. The problem is that the world has become to PC in certain situations. There's a right way and wrong way to do things, but somewhere in all that PC gets involved and why is that person treated that way as oppose to that person. Remember the greatest ability is treat people as you would want to be treated, its called respect for one another. Once that is lost then you open a whole sleuth of unneeded and unwanted issues that could have been avoided.
Anybody know a copper in Northlake with the last name of Rossi? He might be a Sgt. by now. He is a second cousin who I haven't seen in years. The last time I saw him or his family was years ago and I remember listening to his mom tell me how worried she was because Northlake was such a dangerous place. She also told me how he was working hard to get promoted which makes me wonder if he became a housemouse or the real police.