Bloomington’s police chief says the department will rely on partnerships with other law enforcement agencies to try to get more illegal guns off the streets.
Jamal Simington also said the getting guns from those whose Firearm Owners Identification [FOID} cards have been revoked would not put a huge dent in the number of illegal guns in the community. The issue surfaced when it was discovered the gunman in a recent triple-murder suicide had a FOID card that had been previously revoked.
Simington said Bloomington Police talk regularly with the McLean County Sheriffs office and other law enforcement agencies, including Illinois State Police Task Force 6, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms [ATF]; Drug Enforcement Agency [DEA] and the U.S. Marshal’s Service, to address increasing gun violence.
Simington said gun seizures are up 17% and gun arrests have jumped 13% from year-to-year in the city, while the average age of someone unlawfully possessing a gun is 19.
“Ultimately those are not the groups of folks who typically have an FOID card,” Simington said in an interview on WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “Those are the ones that are driving the violence in the City of Bloomington and are the ones more concerning to us.”
Simington said the state legislature may take additional steps to address gun violence, adding BPD will explore more grant funding to increase technology and other strategies.
“We’ll get better,” he said. “And that’s my job.”
License plate cameras
One example of technology that Bloomington Police say has aided their efforts in reducing gun violence is Automatic License Plate Reading [ALPR] cameras.
Simington said the cameras have been so effective, the department may expand their use in residential areas.
He said the city's nearly three dozen cameras are mostly in high-traffic areas.
“Those cameras, they show up everyday, despite the weather, they don’t take a sick day,” Simington said. “That technology works around the clock and it’s something that we truly depend on to help us solve crime.”
Simington said the department wants to put more of the cameras in some east side neighborhoods, noting BPD doesn't use the cameras for minor traffic offenses.
Diversity
On another subject, Simington said Bloomington's police force is more diverse than it's ever been, though it's not as diverse as he would like.
“We have made some significant strides there. There’s more work to do. The 30-by-30 campaign, I want 30% of those I send to the academy to be female officers,” said Simington, referring to the effort to have female officers make up 30% of police forces by 2030.
SImington said BPD has eight officers who identify as African American and 10 who are female — both are department records.
Simington added the department recently reached a record number of sworn officers at 133, but several officers have since left. He said he hopes to get the department back to full capacity by the summer.
