South Beloit now has its own full time detective

South Beloit now has its own full time detective
By Margaret Downing
REPORTER
Commissioners at South Beloit’s Jan. 22 council meeting heard from Police Chief Patrick Hoey that his department “has started off the new-year fully staffed and with a full time detective,” and also noted that the department’s sergeants now report for duty at 3 p.m.  He explained that “This gives them the opportunity to work with both day and night shift officers under their command and allows Deputy Chief Truman and I time to meet with the sergeants.”
In other police activity Hoey reported that, “We had an unfortunate heroin overdose on Jan. 15.  The 34-year-old male was well known to officers and the home on Lathrop Terrace has been the site of other overdoses and nefarious issues.”
He continued to say that “the snow event on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 18 and 19 kept officers busy. Besides issuing citations and towing nine vehicles the department responded to 29 calls for service. At approximately 3 a.m. a resident in the 600 block of Ingersoll observed three males in a driveway looking into cars.
Officers responded and located at least 14 vehicles entered in this block, in the 800 block of Lathrop Terrace and in the 600 block of Gardner. It appears that all of the vehicles that were entered were left unlocked, since no forced entry was noticed.”  He said that the incidents are under investigation.
Additionally, “Officers were tied up on ‘a natural causes death’ in the afternoon of the Jan. 19.” Hoey also explained that the city’s Chaplain Herman was utilized in both death calls “and was great asset to the officers.”
In regards to the chaplain, Hoey said, “Chief Davenport and I met with Chaplain (Dan) Herman last week and I have drafted a memo outlining the use of the Chaplain. This memo coincides with our General Order. Chaplain Herman had made some observations while on some recent scenes that through training of our staffs, (we) can be made more efficient, compassionate and empathetic at these scenes.
“Chaplain Herman obtained a Fire/Police Chaplain coat and shirt and will be issued an ID card and has requested we hold a swearing-in. When I was in Rockford we instituted this practice with new Chaplains. I have developed a Chaplain’s Oath that I modified from other Chaplain’s program.  I will schedule this swearing in for the next city council meeting.”
An annual “evidence audit” was recently completed on property held by the department and Hoey noted that one bicycle could not be located. He said “Records indicate this item was taken into our custody as being abandoned and it may be in the garage in the City Park but the building is not accessible at this time. This audit is required by our policy and is a sound and prudent practice, since it contains not only property but narcotics, cash, jewelry and precious metals. We currently have over 1,500 items in our custody.”
Per the fire department report from Jan. 7 through 21, Fire Chief Mike Davenport noted that the department responded to five structure fires, one illegal burn, one “wires down” call, one carbon monoxide alarm call, 42 medical calls, three auto accidents, two public service calls and eight mutual aid calls. The structure fires, Davenport explained, include one in Rockton, one in Belvidere, two in Beloit, and one response to North Park F.D.
He said “total request for services for this period came to 56.”