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Health & Fitness

Is Shorewood's Deputy Police Chief a Bit Overzealous?

Tearing down posters for high school musical may be going a bit too far.

Sometimes writing about serious political issues requires taking a break and popping my head up and see what else is going on in the world. Being a “political junkie” carries a price, and for my own mental health a break is welcome.

As most long-term residents of the village, I have my network of friends, acquaintances and occasional drinking companions. Something that has recently come up in conversations with us “Westees” (residents living west of Oakland) are some issues with the Shorewood Police Department.

It’s nothing particularly juicy involving corruption or anything of the like, but we were wondering who was stealing the signs, posters and banners placed by Shorewood High School advertising their latest performance arts production - in this case, Ragtime the Musical. Signs, posters and such commonly disappear mysteriously. So this has led to much speculation to solve the mystery.

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I wish to inform my fellow residents that the mystery has been solved. It is Deputy Chief Zimmerman removing the signs and posters. In the latest episode, he climbed into an unmarked police vehicle and began going around removing the “illegal” signage. That’s right, it is illegal by village statute to place such in public spaces, even though it’s been done since Shorewood High School came into being and has long been ignored by public officials.

But not the Deputy Chief, the “law is the law," in spite of an interoffice memo to leave them up. However, it is also known that he “hates” the signage and it is his personal campaign to keep us safe from the subversive messages.

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Other things have come out about our Deputy Chief. It seems that he has a campaign to stop kids on bicycles that are riding without helmets. Now I do support such action to assure children are safe, but a campaign by the Deputy Chief may be a little overkill.

Lastly, the Deputy Chief is the one who crawls into a squad 24 hours after the snow has stopped and patrols, primarily west of Oakland neighborhoods, looking for residents who haven’t as yet removed snow from the public walkways.

Now the question has been posed between me and my cohorts; is this something we want a Deputy Chief of Police to do? Obviously this has led us to other questions. Why does a small community like Shorewood even need a Deputy Police Chief?

If we consolidate with other North Shore communities, will administrative positions such as Deputy Chief become something of the past? With budgets as tight as they are, we need to look at every staff position and see if we really need it or is it simple frosting on the cake.

One other thing pertaining to the men and women in blue, has anyone considered the possibility that the village may need a “paddy wagon”? My drinking buddies tell me that the back of the squads are so small, because of all the equipment carried, that it’s hard to get a small cooperating adult into the backseat, let alone someone non-cooperative, a large individual or someone extremely intoxicated. If we had a vehicle large enough to safely transport detainees; it would be a worthwhile investment. Maybe what we are paying for a Deputy Chief would more than pay for a “paddy wagon."

Next time the “Westees” meet, I’ll get some updates on what’s going on in the village that doesn’t make it into official print and make sure to share it with you.

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