Rockford city leaders and police union exchange heated words

ROCKFORD - The feud between the Rockford police union and city leaders is heating up. 

That's after a Rockford alderman read aloud an email sent to her by a former police officer during Monday night's city council. 

Eyewitness News obtained a copy of the email Wednesday.  It shows it was sent to only 5 city alderman, and it pleads with them not to agree to mayor Larry Morrissey's and Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson's plan to start geo-policing.

It also criticizes the mayor for getting special treatment by Rockford Police officers for incidents that took place in his neighborhood.

On Monday night the mayor address the E-mail and said that he didn't get special treatment.  He claims he had to basically beg to get police to investigate a suspected drug dealer in his neighborhood.  But on Wednesday police union president Terry Peterson commented on the situation for the first time, saying he thinks the E-mail is in the right.

"He has no clue the job of a police officer," said Peterson.

To Peterson, this is just another routine outburst by the mayor.

"These mayoral tantrums, as I've called them in the past, don't surprise me," said Peterson.

At Rockford City Council Monday night, Morrissey attacked claims that he uses police like a personal security team and said it took weeks to get a response and that he had to practically beg for one, but again Peterson disagrees.

"He sent out an email, the email was sent down the chain of command like it always is, and somebody jumped on it that day, it was dealt with that night," said Peterson.

But not all agree with Peterson.  Alderman Ann Thompson-Kelly says the mayor did what any resident would do, and it started by filing a complaint.

"I commend the mayor for taking a citizens role, in filing complaints, like we all have to do," said Thompson-Kelly.  She says just because he can contact city department heads to address issues, doesn't mean he is abusing his power.

"If I didn't have that ability to do that, a lot of my problems would not get solved as well," said Thompson-Kelly.

But Peterson says it's gone too far.  "He's taken it to an extreme," said Peterson.

Peterson says the mayor is also trying to use the E-mail politically to show why geo-policing is needed, saying the drug house would have been caught earlier had officers been more familiar with the neighborhood.

"These programs that they are putting into affect [geo-policing], are what got us in to the top 10 of the most dangerous cities list in America," said Peterson.

But to Thompson-Kelly, Peterson's stance is only political.

"So what Terry Peterson says don't mean **** to me," said Thompson-Kelly.

The mayor was unable to speak with Eyewitness News Wednesday about the heated exchange, but is making himself available to us Thursday to address the accusations.