Lake Forest Resident Suggests Police, Fire Consolidation as a Way to Ease State Budget Strains

As the state eyeballs its budget trying to find areas to trim, the word consolidation has sprung up.

Among school districts.

And among public safety departments.

Lake Forest resident Peter Bensinger recently brought up the idea of consolidation for neighboring police and fire departments at a “Meet Me For ‘Cuts & Coffee’” gathering with  (D-Highland Park) in Highland Park.

Bensinger is a former head of the Illinois Department of Corrections and former chief of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency.

“You can meld what Deerfield and Bannockburn do,” Bensinger said. “You could merge the duties of two or three departments. This would take time, like six to eight years.”

A more immediate fix would be to create a better probation system to eliminate tax dollars going to support prisoners behind bars, But it only works if a support system is in place.

“If we have a good probation system, like in Lake County, it works,” Bensinger said of reducing the prison population. “We have to supervise people on probation. If we do that, they stay out of jail.” 

Bensinger explained probation is a legal remedy where certain offenders are supervised and not sent to prison. When the system does not work, which has been the case in overwhelmed Cook County, according to Bensinger, crime and prison populations increase.

Ben Stevens of Lake Forest suggested abolishing the Illinois State Police. He said the responsibilities of patrolling highways should be given to local sheriff’s police.

However, Bensinger explained that state police are involved in numerous crime task forces around Illinois and have other responsibilities beyond traffic enforcement.

Cutting public safety costs was another suggestion offered by the more than 50 people who came to May’s event in Highland Park. Steve Eiserman of Highland Park cited the high expense of maintaining prisoners. He mentioned successful programs in other states like New York, where crime dropped as well. 

“You could cut 15 to 20 percent,” Eiserman said. “It costs a great deal to maintain people in prison.”

 “We got rid of the overtime,” May said of prison costs. “We need to use a scalpel. When the governor tried to do something about this last year, it blew up in his face.” 

As part of her sit down with constituents, May listened to other budget issues the Illinois General Assembly should examine, ranging from , help for people with disabilities, public safety to business development.