The Bloomington Police Department wants to join a statewide task force that works to better track FOID card revocations.
On Monday, the city council is expected to approve an agreement with the Illinois State Police Violent Crime Intelligence Task Force, a statewide multi-jurisdictional group that conducts enforcement operations against people who have not complied with the requirements of the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act, and their card has been suspended or revoked.
City staff say about 300 Bloomington residents have their FOID cards revoked every year, adding police have had a hard time keeping up with revoked and suspended cards.
“Allowing a revoked FOID card to remain in the possession of the cardholder has the potential to lead to them obtaining a firearm illegally,” city staff said in a memo to the city council.
Bloomington Police reported the gunman in last month's triple-murder suicide had a revoked FOID card.
The memo adds that confiscating weapons and revoked FOID cards of people whose rights were revoked can be time consuming and costly, especially when card holders don't cooperate.
“In a scenario where officers are met with less cooperation from a person with a revoked or suspended FOID card, the time needed to process a case can take much, much longer,” states the memo, adding officers may then need to obtain a search warrant.
Through the task force, Bloomington Police would seek grant funding to pay for officer overtime costs. City staff say that would prevent BPD from needing to take officers off other tasks, such as investigating violent and property crimes.
According to a draft of the agreement, the task force also may partner with police agencies to reduce gun violence and gun trafficking, to seek drug diversion programs, work with faith-based and other community organizations on crime prevention and help low-level offenders.
