The Bloomington Police Department [BPD] has received a small grant from the state of Illinois to support its firearm revocation efforts.
A department spokesperson confirmed BPD was the only downstate Illinois agency to receive the grant. They were awarded more than $20,000 to fund officer overtime and on-the-clock hours spent identifying people whose Firearm Owner Identification Cards [FOID] have expired or been revoked and seizing guns within city limits. Grant amounts were determined by violent crime rates.
Enforcing gun regulations is within Illinois State Police [ISP] jurisdiction. In March, Bloomington City Council approved an agreement for BPD to join the ISP Violent Crime Intelligence Task Force in March, allowing them to assist state police.
The department has characterized FOID compliance as a huge project that is time-consuming, expensive and dangerous, often requiring more than one officer on a call.
City staff have said about 300 Bloomington residents have their FOID cards revoked each year. The alleged perpetrators of Twin City murder-suicides in 2024 and 2025 were Bloomington residents whose FOID cards had been revoked at the time of the killings. And a new state law now requires police to proactively seize weapons from those under an order of protection, which strips people of their gun rights.
BPD’s priority will be tackling a backlog of cases, addressing the most serious first. Currently, there’s no plan to hire or dedicate specific officers or shifts to FOID compliance cases.
