By: Diane Benjamin
With the 2 recent firings from the Normal Police force, I wondered how many officers they have, I FOIA’d it.
Results:
That is a total of 75 officers. Problem: This list contains the officer fired June 15th, weeks before I filed the FOIA.
A source tells me 4 additional officers no longer work for Normal. A 5th is leaving. That means 69 officers.
I also FOIA’d a list of current job openings, Normal claimed a list doesn’t exist and they aren’t required to create it. They did send this message:
They are advertising now however:
Those are just two from the bills for Monday, there are others: https://normal.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4034
I also wanted to know how the current number compares to 2017 – before the police were declared evil by people who want chaos. PDF pages 202-203 https://normal.org/DocumentCenter/View/12750/Comprehensive-Annual-Financial-Report-17-FINAL-DOC
That looks like 13 fewer officers today than in 2017. How much overtime is being paid? Ever call 911 in Normal and no one responds?
I hear moral is in the basement. It would be nice if information released by FOIA could be depended on!
Morale in basement… fascinating.
My neighbor is a Normal officer. Said there is no way. Under Reece that they’re going up in staffing anytime soon, despite losing officers left and right. It will be more OT which raises expenses (pension obligations) long-term or leaves a shortage of resources. Officer then noted it drives morale issues and leads to officers retiring and/or finding a private sector job or going to a different department.