police blog
The Benefits of an Employee Survey
Many companies use employee surveys to guage how the employees feel about their jobs and their company. The majority of Fortune 500 companies use them as a tool to improve the effectiveness of the organization. While working at Northlake PD I observed the morale of the organization and the majority of the workers sink to a level that was the lowest in my 13 years there. To be sure, there were always unsettling dilemmas for employees and someone was always complaining about something–mostly very trivial things. Prior to chief Dennis Koletsos being hired in 1998, the turnover at the department was very low, mainly due to retirements. …Read more […..]
Does Filing Grievances Ruin a Career?
What is the function of the Union President/Steward of a Police Department? This person is responsible for acting as the liason between the Police Officers and Management as well as to ensure that labor contract violations are attended to. My experience at Northlake PD is one that may or may not be common in the Policing world, I leave that up to you. In my 18 months as Union President of Northlake PD I filed 18 grievances. Several of the grievances were my own but the overwhelming majority of them were filed on behalf of other officers with their permission and at their request. I felt that the labor contract was being …Read more […..]
"No one takes food off my plate!!!"
A quick story about a meeting I had a while back with the Chief of Police of Northlake. Yes, the guy in the video posted on the bottom of this page regarding the American flag.The background behind it is this. I became FOP(Union) President due to what I felt as improper treatment of employees and violations of the Labor Contract. I began to file grievances on behalf of other officers. There were also many rumors going around the department regarding the chief’s past employment. One of them was that he was “fired” from his previous employer, Grayslake PD, for exactly the same type of reasons. I sent an email to Grayslake requesting …Read more […..]
Does Officer Off on FMLA Have to Go to Court?
Here is an interesting lawsuit, yes another one against the fine City of Northlake Illinois and Police Chief Dennis Koletsos.Brings up the question of whether an Officer who is off on FMLA have to go to court when subpoenaed?Without knowing the specifics in this case, it sounds like this officer refused to go to court while off on FMLA and was eventually fired.Does this officer have a good case? We will see…Case filing info:Rasic v. City of Northlake et al Plaintiff: Daniel Rasic Defendant: City of Northlake, Dennis A Koletsos, City of Northlake Police and Fire Commission, Roberta Larson, Manuel Ferra and Gary Merchant …Read more […..]
"Are You Ready For a Challenge?"
As a former employee of this “Fine” organization, I will only say that it is amazing what Hollywood effects can do to make something look so good. I am talking about the recruitment video for the Northlake, Illinois Police Department. (Click this post’s title to view it.) It is amazing that more than half of the officers that are shown in the video no longer work there, primarily due to the working conditions. Several have pending lawsuits against that very fine city. Management is severely anti-union. As someone so elegantly stated in a comment posted on a previous post, the turnover rate at this department is through the …Read more […..]
Same Chief That Removed the Flag?
Former officer sues Northlake, police chiefWednesday, May 03, 2006 | 7:01 PM By Chuck GoudieMay 3, 2006 — Strippers on a golf course, some suburban police and the Chicago mob. They all come together in an unusual lawsuit that is the subject of this Intelligence Report. The case follows an I-Team report from 2002. Several patrolmen from west suburban Northlake lost their jobs after participating in a police golf outing that featured exotic dancers acting as caddies. That was almost four years ago. Now, one of the former cops who attended the outing is suing Northlake and its police chief for allegedly smearing his reputation …Read more […..]