Many years ago in the 1990s, the Freeport Police Department established a Community Oriented
Policing (COP) unit in the 3 rd Ward area of Freeport. This unit patrolled the 3rd Ward neighborhoods on
bicycles, developed relationships with neighbors and neighborhood organizations, and operated out of a
policing substation located on Liberty Avenue.

Though the Freeport COP unit was highly effective in crime prevention and enforcement in the area,
funding through the US Department of Justice eventually dried up and, with it, Freeport’s COP unit.
But Freeport Mayor Jodi Miller says it’s time to reexamine the strategies and tactics used in community
policing and explore how those tactics might successfully be applied in Freeport today.
“Community policing builds trust within neighborhoods as law enforcement works closely with residents
and neighborhood groups in addressing public safety, at-risk youth, housing, and infrastructure issues
that exist in their particular neighborhood,” explains Mayor Miller. “Law enforcement becomes an
active participant in neighborhood improvement and development.”

Mayor Miller points out that Freeport Police Department Chief Chris Shenberger was in the Freeport
COP unit early in his law enforcement career and has the knowledge and skillset to implement a new
community policing strategy for Freeport neighborhoods.
“I’m not sure if our new community policing strategy will mirror the old model exactly,” says Mayor
Miller, “but the philosophy of getting our department more active in working with residents and
neighborhood groups to strengthen their neighborhoods and make them safer is where we want to go
over the coming years.”

Mayor Miller explains the Freeport Police Department currently is in a surge of restaffing and
restructuring as new recruits are filling the ranks of the department.
“Making sure we continue to build up to staffing strength will make community policing a real possibility
for our community,” adds Mayor Miller.

The aftereffects of the COVID pandemic, a national decline in law enforcement recruitment,
retirements, injuries, and the future uncertainty of city finances, had left the Freeport Police
Department with just 35 sworn officers by 2023—down 13 from its budgeted 48 officers.
But things have turned around considerably since then. Freeport received a $52,000 recruitment grant
from the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standard Board to help the city find new candidates. The
city implemented a new process for candidate follow-up, a ride along program for applicants, retention
bonuses to keep seasoned officers, and incentives for officers in other communities looking to make a
lateral move to Freeport. All these efforts have paid off as the department is almost at full staff once
again.

With many new officers being sworn over the past two years, the Freeport Police Department has been
able to reestablish its Gang Detective who alone took 82 guns off the street in Freeport last year. The
department has also reestablished its bilingual School Resource Officer at Freeport School District #145
and is building back its Detective, Special Victims Unit and K-9 units, as well as its participation in the
State Line Area Narcotics Team (SLANT).