In October of 2014, the former Police Chief made an “on-line” purchase of 25 Taser Weapons for the Sauk Village Police Department. In July of 2015, an Officer used one of those weapons to Taser an offender. Several weeks later the Village received a pending lawsuit request from an Attorney representing the offender.In August of 2015, our Village Administrator learned that neither the former Chief nor his Deputy Chief had developed policies authorizing the use of Taser weapons for our Officers. After conferring with the Village’s Risk Insurance Company, they recommended the Village discontinue the use of Taser Weapons until a policy could be created. They added that policies protect not only the Village but our Officers as well.
Due to the findings, I regretfully ordered the Taser Weapons removed from use. I also instructed our attorneys to immediately have a Taser policy put in place; five days later on August 25th that happened. However, the Village is not out of the woods yet. Almost all of the Police Departments General Orders have not been updated since 2005.
It is clear that the former Police Chief and the former Deputy Police Chief have been remiss in their responsibilities to the Village and our Officers. I take this personally because of the job our Officers must face on a daily basis. We live in difficult times and everyone, not just our front line people, must do their part.
A comprehensive study of the Police Department’s policies is under review and Sauk Village has hired a new Police Chief, Robert Kowalski. Chief Kowalski, who retired from the FBI as Supervising Special Agent, will be tasked with reviewing and updating police department policies and training and insuring that effective community relations co-exist between our residents and our Officers.
I support our Police Officers and the difficult job they do - as I support all of our employees; however I will never support any person who through their negligence places our Village and employees at risk.
Mayor David A. Hanks