The Springfield Police Department will send 11 officers to Washington, D.C. to protect Donald Trump during the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Police Chief Ken Scarlette, who received the invitation while attending a law-enforcement conference in Minnesota last month.
“I made a contact with a couple of high-ranking individuals from the Metro Police Department of the District of Columbia and we just struck up a conversation. One was telling me that he was in charge of putting together the inauguration detail and that they had 3,800 law-enforcement officers coming from various departments, He was looking to get a few more to come assist with the inauguration day,” Scarlette said. “I thought that would be a very unique opportunity for some of our officers to participate.”
While the city will be reimbursed for officer’s wages and travel expenditures, not everyone believes this is the best use of city resources.
“We have enough problems with crime in Springfield that we need to be working on solving – some murder cases, some robbery and some burglary, some break-in cases,” said Teresa Haley, a community activist and past president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP. “I think there’s enough crime here in Springfield for the officers to stay behind and to protect the citizens that our tax dollars pay for.”
But Scarlette said the department will be adequately staffed during the time the officers are in the nation’s capital.
“I assure the Springfield community that we’re not losing any sort of patrol function or manpower because of these folks going,” he said. “There were a handful from what we call field operations. There are a handful that are from the criminal investigations division. They’re spread out over various watches. We have a required minimum manning to meet. And we did not go below that to send these individuals out there.”
Scarlette said the crew he is sending to Washington consists of 10 officers and one lieutenant. He added it will be an excellent training opportunity. He said their role while on the special assignment will be crowd control. For example, they may line the inauguration parade route, holding back spectators. Later, they may provide security for various balls and galas celebrating the election of Trump.
Visiting officers will go through a day of training before taking on these duties.
“(We) certainly had a summer of various parades, protests, crowd control situations. So, anything that you can go experience, learn from and bring back (will make the officers) better equipped, better organized, better prepared,” Scarlette said.
But Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams is skeptical.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to do this because it’s political, and we’re taking our manpower away,” he said. “As we always say, ‘We are short-staffed.'”
Ward 1 Ald. Chuck Redpath, a retired police officer, said he has confidence that Scarlette is making the right decision.
“Let me tell you, he’s one of the best chiefs we ever have had,” he said. “Of course, I’ve been on (city council) 30 years. I’ve seen a lot of them come and go. … I’m more familiar with him than anybody else. I have a lot of confidence in him, and if he feels like we’re capable to do it, I think it’s not a bad idea.”
Sangamon County Democratic Party chief Bill Houlihan contends that since the election is over, it is proper to send the officers.
“This is an appropriate use because they’re going to Washington to make sure that the president and everyone else is protected,” he said. “I would say that being asked by the Washington, D.C. police shows how good our local police department is. They should be honored to be able to come out there and work, whether it’s crowd control or working somewhere making sure that everybody is getting in the place at the right time.”
Houlihan added he does not view an inauguration as a partisan event.
“The election’s over,” he said. “(Trump) won the election fair and square, and now he’s going to get sworn in. That peaceful transformation of power is what makes our democracy so great.”
Scott Reeder, a staff writer for Illinois Times, can be reached at: sreeder@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Best films and scenes of 2024.
The article writes,
“But Ward 3 Ald. Roy Williams is skeptical.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to do this because it’s political, and we’re taking our manpower away,””
You can bet your bottom dollar that if Kamala Harris had been elected, Alderman Williams would have said that it’s an honor for our police officers to participate in the historic inauguration.
The article also writes,
“”We have enough problems with crime in Springfield that we need to be working on solving – some murder cases, some robbery and some burglary, some break-in cases,” said Teresa Haley, a community activist and past president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP.”
I think that Miss Haley should be more excited to send a contingent to Trump’s inauguration considering that it was her Trumpian rhetoric about immigration which got her kicked out of her position at the NAACP.