City Council Considers Weakening Police Action

The Naperville city council can’t seem to pick a lane. They will take a stand, make a decision, pass an ordinance, and then when someone doesn’t like it, they will backtrack and fold. The council has never been accused of showing too much backbone, especially when it comes to supporting the police department.

In 2019 a 17-year old  high school student was accused of stealing another student’s Airpods. The school’s resource officer, after investigating, issued a municipal ticket to the student, though she denied committing the offense. Four years later, the case was heard by a jury, and the student was cleared of wrong doing by reason of doubt. City spokesperson Linda LaCloche said, “The defendant wanted her day in court, and now that she has had it, we are ready to move on”. That’s how it works.

That’s not good enough for some people. One person said, “The audacity of our leadership to suggest we are ready to move on reeks of indifference for the undeserved trauma that began in a student’s life when she was only 17. To suggest this matter has come to a conclusion dismisses our humanity and the fundamental need to investigate”.  Another person wants the city council to form a task force to review ticketing policies.

It was determined that black students at Naperville North, including this student, were five times more likely to receive a ticket than white students. Could it be that race has nothing to do with who gets cited, but rather has to do with who is braking the rules?

Councilmen Ian Holzhauer, and Benny White want to move forward (or backward) with discussion of police ticketing policies, while councilman Josh McBroom doesn’t support issuing any tickets to students. We have a real problem in this country with lack of respect for authority. When local ‘leadership’ wants to remove effective tools from the NPD’s tool box, that’s not support. If the city council is not part of the solution, they are part of the problem.