TAMMS BOARD SAYS NO TO POLICE GRANT

TAMMS, Ill. -- Despite the insistence of about 35 people, the Tamms Board of Trustees refused Monday night to reconsider acceptance of a federal grant to hire up to three additional police officers.

The board did agree unanimously, however, to hire another police officer on at least a part-time basis when money became available in the village budget.

Tempers occasionally flared during the trustees' meeting at the Community Center.

Most of the residents who attended expressed anger that the board had voted 3 to 2 last month to return a 75 percent federal matching grant that would provide funds for the village to hire up to three additional police officers. One board member was absent from the meeting.

The village employs one full-time and one part-time police officer. The two men are on 24-hour call, but work a total of 75 hours each week.

About 750 people live in the village.

Almost all of the residents at the meeting had signed a petition asking the board to reconsider its decision to return the grant because they feel more police protection is needed. Many said they believe that already increasing crime will go up again once a supermaximum security prison outside of Tamms is completed at the end of the year.

"We've got a lot of citizens out here who can't protect themselves," said Tamms resident Lamar Houston. "I know how they felt that night when the murders took place, because we had no idea who the suspects were, where they were -- none of that."

Residents said the board should reconsider its decision because a large block of voters -- more than 300 -- had signed the petition. Moreover, they said, the village has a large number of senior citizens who depend upon quick responses from police officers.

"You don't know until you have walked in the other fellow's shoes," said Claudia Nelson. "When my husband was in the hospital for eight days and I had to come back to that house and stay there by myself every night, then I walked in that other person's shoes. To me, it's not adequate coverage, even if we have one more."

Board members who voted to return the grant said they did so because the village did not have the $5,904 per year required to pay the salary for each officer hired with the grant money. They also said the village hasn't shown a need for additional police.

In addition, they said, Tamms residents have 24-hour police protection because they can call Illinois State Police or Alexander County Sheriff's Department personnel if local officers are not available.

"If we're going to write tickets that are dismissed, if we're going to make arrests that aren't followed up on, then it's not a valid return on the resources we're putting into it," said board member Shane Hunter. "I personally have a philosophical opposition to burdening the rest of the country with having to pay for our police force."

But residents and some board members said those reasons were not good enough to warrant returning a $159,000 grant that would pay 75 percent of the costs for new officers.

"How do you tell someone who wants to pay 75 percent of something 'No, we want to reach down into our pocket and pay all of it ourselves?'" asked board member Charles Hood. "That doesn't make any sense."

Houston told board members they should consider the village's future when making decisions about law enforcement. Any industry considering the village as a location will look at the tax base, the school system and law enforcement, he said. These are the things that help a town to grow.