City and Police Union Agree on Special Units Merger

Rockford, IL - Rockford city and police union officials agree on a big change to the departments organization. They met with a federal mediator on Friday where they decided to merge three of the special units into one. Rockford police management have been working on this merger for months. "It would be the existing people that we have and just pooling those people into better positions," says Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson. The department will combine the Rockford Housing Unit with the Tactical Team Unit, as well as the Bicycle Patrol Unit. Officers within the Rockford Housing Unit focus on the almost 4,000 residents living in the citys five housing developments. The tactical team patrols high crime areas and runs prostitution, gambling, and drug stings. The bicycle unit patrols the downtown area. Coming to the agreement was a long process because the police union was apprehensive about combining those special units. "There`s different thoughts about the units being separate and being distinct units and being able to have pride in that unit and the specialty that they did," says Sgt. Doug Block, president of the police union. "Now we`re broadening it open to include more people, and it`s been tough." The union agreed to the plan on Friday. Up to 36 officers will be cross-trained to be able to handle all responsibilities. It will also consist of three supervisors. Leaders initially anticipate that the special unit will have 20 officers during the night shift and eight officers during the day shift. Those would be in addition to the patrol officers. "They`re wonderful changes," says Epperson. "It`s a total enhancement of our special operation area, how we react to crimes on the street, particularly street crimes and quality of life crimes. We`ll be able to have expanded coverage 24-7 as opposed to a few days of the week." "We`ve been logged up and jammed with this in negotiations, and now my hope is that with this behind us that we move onto the other issues and get them off the table," says Block. The special unit begins on January 14th. The city and police union sit down with an arbitrator on Tuesday. They still need to work out wage and health insurance issues.