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See FOCUS Manat Suburban Enhanced Drug/Gang Enforcement) Te Seren roa Pern ert ae communities too smal to bea part of Prometric Cae end ees Peretti renee Sh dared WEST SUBURBAN ENHANCED yr Te fey ACUI ALEC) ! ershhief Tom Weitzel with the Riverside, Il, Police co-chairs the WEDGE (West Suburban En: hanced Drug/Gang Enforcement) Task Force. This task force includes the smaller communities of Riverside, Forest Park, Borwyn, Brookfield, Elmwood Park, North Riverside, Oak Park, River Forest, River Grove, and Stickney in Cook County, IN. ‘Weitzel zeported that the Chicago Police has done such a good job of policing that they are pushing crime westward, into these small or very small communities, the “inner ring” suburbs. These communities are in close proximity to the West Side of the City of Chicago, some of them sharing a border directly withthe City of Chicago. There isa total land area of 152 square miles, with nearly 200,000 people, and policed by 331 officers The West Side of Chicago historically has a great deal of drug and gang activity. There was no unit to handle drug and gang activity regionally, nor to provide data sharing. They saw crime ‘coming tothe suburban areas with street corner drug sales and laxger operations. Te suburban areas did not know the playersin the gangs and drug activity. City of Des Plaines Police Chief Bill Kushner, who ‘was Chief of Berwyn at the time, called a meeting of the chiefs of several area towns and pitched the idea of a regional tsk force to address the issues. He realized they needed more drug and gang activity enforcement ‘The chiefs came up witha plan that would address the issues without losing a full-time oificer to the task force by agreeing to detail officers tothe task force for a few days per month. To address the problem of not knowing the gang and drug play: ers and the need for other data, they reached out to the City of Chicago for drug and gang activity information. Chicago PD. assists them with intelligence information, Kushner stated, "WEDGE was able to go from concept to fruition because ‘of a number of dedicated people, both sworn and civilian, who saw the bene- fits to all municipalities that would participate. We were incredibly fortunate to have a mayor (Mike O'Connor, Ber~ ‘wyn) who immediately saw the advan- tages of the concept, and helped lobby not only the Berwyn City Council, but surrounding elected officials as well. It ‘was gratifying to have such support.” When all the participating chiefs called for a board meeting after their first operational period, he feared they ‘were unhappy and wanted to termi= nate their involvement but they actually wanted to expand operations "WEDGE is a wonderful demonstration of interagency cooperation, and shows ‘= WEDGE has their own badge and ‘other identifying information for task force operations. MEDGEL ed: Porras ‘© The officers in the WEDGE Task Force meet to got intoligence briefings and plan or operations. that ‘task force operations’ can be successful, regardless ofthe agencies’ sizes. WEDGE isnot a success because of any one per son. WEDGE isa success because ofthe officers who do the job asa part of the task force, and the Chiefs who sit on the board.” Jim Ryan, Co-Chair of Wedge and Forest Patk Police Chief, stated, “WEDGE allows the Village of Forest Park Police De- partment to continue vital crime fighting efforts, to move past simply reacting to crime, and to move toward proactive enforce- rment efforts, field intelligence and crime analysis—all of which are critical to maintaining public safety and reducing crime.” He added, “The primary goal of the task force is to make it difficult for gang members and drug dealers to sell, use or transport illegal drugs and commit gang related crimes within WEDGE communities and greater Cook County. The task force focus is not just to increase the nuzmber of arrests—it's to de- crease criminal gang activity in our communities. This endeavor is being accomplished due to many individuals working to- {gether to make a positive impact on neighborhoods.” Chief Weitzel confirmed, "In my 27 years of law enforce ment service, the WEDGE unit has been the most effective catalyst for enhancing interagency cooperation; the growth of personal relationships and sharing of resources has served to tunify the mission of law enforcement agencies on all levels.” Because each community has their ‘own RMS and it is too expensive for them to change to a new one for task force operations, WEDGE uses the Cook County and Chicago database, (CLEAR, that contains a log of every ar rest for any crime in Cook County. It includes mug shots, identifying infor- ‘mation, tattoos and nicknames or street names, This is very useful and allows them. for instance, to download a tattoo and search the database for that tattoo, WEDGE had a tip line but found it won Jawandorcermag.com 25iguali-§ WEDGE (West Suburban Enhanced Drug/Gang Enforcement) ‘was underutilized and the chiefs were actually getting more ‘e-mail on their published e-mail addresses on their city web- sites. Chief Tom Weitzel of Riverside was one of these. “I received pictures and a video e-mailed to me by a dtizen of ‘a drug transaction and we were able to make an arrest due tothat, We did surveillance on the same dead end street and, ‘watched the same red convertible delivering drugs.” Paxstnestng with U. §. Macszals, DRA AND ATF WEDGE has Memos of Understanding with both the BATFE and the DEA. Their agreement with ATF allows for ATF to do gun tracking for them and an ATF officer will search databases for them, DEA will help with long: term drug investigations. They also participate in warrant sweeps upon invitation of the U.S. Marshals and are tem. poranily appointed as Marshals during the time of the detail Fach agency submits their own felony warrants and they as- sist the Marshals in serving the Marshals’ warrants along with those of the various jurisdictions. For instance, James Kirkendall was the last fugitive included in a 2010 federal drug conspiracy case dubbed “Operation Bird Cage,” aimed at ringleader and ranking New Breed gang leader, Dana Bostic. During August 2011, WEDGE units were provided ‘with intelligence regarding Kirkendall, who was wanted by the United States Marshals Service, Kirkendall had known ties to the west suburban area and WEDGE initiated a mission to re- cover Kirkendall for the U'S. Marshals, WEDGE officers learned of an area Kirkendall frequented and set up a surveillance position. Osficers observed a vehicle containing two men who engaged in what appeared to be a hand-to-hand drug transaction, The passenger looked similar toKirkendall the vehicle was stopped, and Kirkendall was posi- tively identified and taken into custody without incident The driver also had a warrant and was arrested. Weitzel stated, “Tapplaud the work of the officers from the WEDGI Task Force for their hard work, persistence and most impor tantly, their exemplary cooperation with the US. Marshals Service, This sentence, by plea agreement, illustrates the com- ‘mitment WEDGE has to safeguarding our communities. The eight-year prison sentence will reduce the Flow of drugs into the ‘west Suburban communities that border the City of Chicago.” DEA has databases and helps with investigations that might take them out of the WEDGE area or even out of the country. and is very helpful in such long-term drug cases, Heroin and cocaine are the primary drugs being trafficked with some oc- casional large amounts of cannabis seized. WEDGE takes the gang and drug cases to the Cook County Felony Review Unit nd have had good success in having cases prosecuted. Beating ‘The communities formed the unitin the method chosen because none ofthe communes could afford to detail alltime tactical officer to address the issues, Commander Keating reported that WEDGE usually works one week on, one week off but at any given time they can put togethers WEDGE group for something that comes up, likea search warrant, They do their planning well ahead of time for increase activity inthe communities ‘© The WEDGE unit works to restrict drug and gang activity and is also able to take a great deal of drugs and drug money off the street, as well as firearms. Police chiefs are asked to detail their best tactical officers to WEDGE There are two command officers and they doa sereen- ing ofthe officers recommended by each chief. If they find that the officer does nat appear to fit well nto the uit they have the

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