The municipalities of Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills are considering a proposed merger of their police departments—a move that would save the villages collectively an estimated $700,000 to $800,000. Earlier this year, the Village of Winfield studied consolidating police services with surrounding villages or contracting with the County Sheriff Department.
Consolidating entities and sharing services are options for municipalities looking to streamline government and more efficiently utilize taxpayer dollars.
Much to late in coming. With the fiscal crisis being felt by all local governments this needs to be considered on a much larger scale; county wide. There are some good examples out there already to copy; Miami-Dade County. However, the political bosses and police chiefs will be resistant. This has been a sacrosanct area by most village managers, mayors and polcie chiefs.
I think this is a great idea. More importantly we should also consider some entities too big. I propose breaking up COok COunty into 4 counties consisting of the 1) the city of Chicago, 2) South Suburbs, 3) West Suburbs, and 4) North Suburbs. In this way each group could have one police department, a cooperative arrangement between all four counties for one jail, and merge a lot of other departments also. This would also equalize the political clout between different groups as each section seems to have their own poltical agenda.
Very good suggestion. I like the idea of breaking it into 4 counties. However, one central county government with 4 police districts could save more money through central contracting and procurement. Three new counties may not necessarily reduce political clout, but only pit the Northshore against the economically depressed Southern suburbs. Where’s your tax base in the southeast county cities (i.e. Calumet city and Robbins)?