Total crime data for the Town of Normal remains somewhat even from 2024 to 2025, but Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli said there are still signs of improvement.
“The most significant area, though, would be in our reduction in shootings,” Petrilli said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas.
“I’m really proud of the fact that we’re over 61% reduction in shooting incidents.”
Weapons-related offenses were down in the town from 68 cases to 40. Petrilli said he sees national numbers in violent crime trending downward.
“I’m hoping and I believe that here in our local community, it’s a concerted effort of education enforcement,” he said.
Petrilli cited the town’s aggressive stance on public ordinances as another reason for tampering down on violent crime, especially instances related to public alcohol use.
“…trying to ensure that folks are not spilling out into the streets consuming alcohol, because that leads to property damage and escalation, fights, things like that,” he said.
“So, I think alcohol plays a role. I think we do a good job here locally of setting the boundaries for not just the student population but for the entire town.”
Cases of shots fired dropped from 26 to 10 and property damage fell from 14 to 3.
The Normal Police Department [NPD] has also employed other strategies to reduce crime, ones which Petrilli described as a proactive approach to crime.
“That’s a lot of our resources when we have officers out there proactively making traffic stops, searching vehicles when appropriate, that is geared towards being an interdiction of not just guns and drugs, but the criminal element in and of itself,” he said.
Meanwhile, vehicle burglaries were up from 81 in 2024 to 107 in 2025.
“Generally, motor vehicle burglaries is a crime of opportunity,” Petrilli said.
Petrilli said perpetrators tend to see a car left unoccupied with doors unlocked, windows open or valuables in sight. That is an area where the department seeks to provide education.
“Let’s get a routine of shutting garage doors, making sure our vehicles are locked, to try to cut down on those but sometimes we see an increase. And some of it could have to do with…catalytic converter thefts and/or just more opportunities,” he said.
Police staffing
Most other serious offenses were down or stable. Petrilli said the department already regularly reviews intel on how to staff patrols and direct resources.
“For instance, if we have an uptick in burglaries in a certain neighborhood, maybe in a business district, we’re looking at the method of operation, the m.o. with those and deploying resources appropriately,” said Petrilli.
“So, that’s kind of how we take some of those numbers and look at them, but really it’s a daily approach that we’re looking at what’s happening in the different areas of town."
NPD sits at 88 sworn officers including 76 male, 12 female and 16 minority officers. It is close to full staff.
“Actually, our authorized strength is going to be more, just over 90, 92. And we’ve got two vacancies, but we’ve lined up three officers to go to the academy in May, so we’re sitting in a good spot right now, right where we should be,” Petrilli said.
The department has yet to reach its goal of having a police force that is 30% female. Petrilli said they are still striving for the department to better reflect the community.
“We try to move towards that goal with every recruiting process that we engage in,” he said. “I will say, our numbers are good, but our recruiting—the amount of folks that we get to apply—is definitely not where we want it.”
Petrilli said the department is always looking for qualified recruits for “a great town to police. But in an application cycle with 60 applications, only 12 moved forward from the testing and background.
“I don’t think we’re in a business that allows the lowering of standards, so in my tenure, I don’t see that happening,” he said. “As far as reducing standards for folks that we hire…we have a system for that. We have a battery of tests that we put people through.”
Petrilli said those involve psychological, polygraph and physical tests along with medical screenings. He said recent changes have also gone into effect from the Massey Act. The law strengthened regulations around hiring in policing after a Sangamon County sheriff's deputy with a history of misconduct fatally shot Sonya Massey in her home during a 2024 service call.
Training and leadership
NPD will look for lateral candidates to add to their staff as well or hire experienced officers from outside departments. Petrilli said those officers also help fill gaps in training the current staff.
“We have a very young staff, so when we’re able to pick up lateral officers that come to us with experience, we can use that experience to help bring some more time, time and rank to the different shifts,” he said.
The actual training programs have increased tenfold, said Petrilli. The field training program expanded from 16 to 20 weeks and the police academy from 14 to 16 weeks.
“And then from there, we’ve got a long probation area period where we’re evaluating officers,” he said. “But experience and then the lack of experience, I think training is the next best thing that you can do. So, we invest a lot in recruiting successful lateral transfer candidates, but also for our new officers.
"We train, we train, we train,” he said.
Petrilli himself is undertaking new training and leadership practice as the president of the FBI National Alumni Association for the Illinois chapter. He described it as an intensive 11-week leadership program.
“Basically, only the top 1-2% of law enforcement professionals throughout the country get selected. So it’s, number one, hard to get in, but I went to the FBI National Academy back in 2016,” he said.
He said networking opportunities are plentiful, allowing senior law enforcement to seek each other out on policies, procedures and practices.
“It’s a great reference point for that while you’re at the FBI Academy, you receive intensive training on different subjects, from it could be media relations, it could be use of force, it could be criminal law,” said Petrilli.
“I’m the president of our state board, and with that state board, we arrange training, we advocate on topics within law enforcement that are important, we discuss with elected officials, city officials.”
New technology
Last year, NPD received a grant for additional automatic license plate reader [ALPR] cameras to combat retail theft. Now, the department has 57 in total.
Petrilli said location of the cameras is publicly available.
“There is an actual transparency page that gives you all the information for how many cameras we have up and running, how many searches are being done, things like that,” he said.
In practice, the cameras have proved successful for investigations by the department. Petrilli said they have often assisted officers in solving crimes.
“A lot of the times it’s reactionary, right? We’re getting alerts, maybe on a hot listed vehicle that could be a vehicle that was a stolen, a vehicle that was used in a crime that officers are getting information on that vehicle,” said Petrilli.
Petrilli said NPD is looking to expand use of the cameras into additional business districts on top of the gaps they already identified to place the current ones. The grant money was used to place cameras on the east side of Normal in retail areas.
NPD does not plan to enlist use of the cameras in residential areas.
“Most, if not all of our cameras are on major thoroughfares. At this point, there’s really no strategic plan to be moving into residential areas with cameras,” he said.
Petrilli confirmed the cameras are not a tool for immigration enforcement, surveillance or facial recognition. Their only use is to locate vehicles suspected of being party to a crime.
In the town’s agreement with Axon, approved in October, NPD has access to a new records management system and new supplies like drones.
“The type of drone that we’re looking at, it would only require one drone at this given time, and I kind of look at it as a pilot,” he said. “We’ve seen it play out in other jurisdictions, other municipalities, even here within Illinois. It seems to be a value add.”
Petrilli said the department will wait to see the return on investment before seeking out another drone.
“For instance, like if we had a traffic accident at Veterans and College, sometimes that’s tough depending upon where resources are at to get there quickly, just based with traffic. A lot of times with these drones, the way that they’re positioned, they can be on essentially anywhere in town within a minute,” he said.
Another possible scenario would be an active shooting situation or active burglary.
“Something like that, having the ability to get a drone on scene, not only are you collecting some of that video evidence, but you’re also setting up what are the routes the first responders should take, and it plays into the tactics for how we respond to different calls for service,” Petrilli said.
