Justice Department grant helps Kewanee Police Department hire two more officers

A $250,000 grant from the Justice Department’s Community Oriented Policing Services program (COPS) is helping the Kewanee Police Department put two more officers on the job. Chief Stephen Kijanowski spoke with Our Quad Cities News via Zoom about the grant and its impact on the city.

He said the department had help applying for the grant from a staffer who has a master’s degree in grant writing. The funds will go to hiring more officers for specialty units.

“Those two positions that we hire will allow us to place more seasoned officers into our specialty units,” said Kijanowski. “One of those special units is the street crime unit, and they’re a patrol unit that focuses on mid to low level narcotics distribution, violent crime. They’re also part of our DAART program, which is the Drug Alcohol Addiction Response Team. That program is a proactive, community focused, compassionate approach to helping individuals battle the addiction to drugs or alcohol. If they have mental health issues, we are able to help get them to resources and provide support in their in their journey to recovery.”

Kijanowski says the grant will also be used to put another officer in one of the schools in the city. “We’re also going to use that to put an officer into one of the schools as well, and that will be a school resource officer. Once that new officer gets hired, we’ll put him into our School Resource Program, which we already have one officer in already.”

He says support from city officials has been crucial to expanding the force. “We were lucky that our city council does support our law enforcement. I think our community does as well, and we were able to get two positions put into our budget this year. With this grant waiting to be announced, we waited for that, so we were able to hire those positions with this grant. I think that is an important part is balancing our budgets. A small town, or any place, big or small, has to be worried about financial aspects. Cops are expensive to have.” Kijanowski said about 60% of his annual budget goes to regular salaries, not counting overtime.

The grant stipulates that the officers must be kept on staff for five years. The grant provides payments to support their salaries for three years, but Kijanowski has no intention of ending the positions after five years. “Our goal is to keep them through our budgeting process and be able to pay for them just through our normal funds. We’re always looking for grants, though. We’re always looking for support from state or federal grants, which we have received several in the past couple of years.”

While having more officers on the streets is important, Kijanowski says it’s just as important to have someone working with kids in schools. A school resource officer is already at Kewanee High School and the plan is to add another at Central School. The officers will also spend time at the elementary schools.

“In programs across the state, those school resource officers become part of that community at the school, and they’re able to develop good relationships with the staff and the youth that go to the school,” he said. “They (students) end up seeing the officer not just as an authority figure of a police officer, but as a resource to them, to help guide them as they’re growing up. So, it’s been a positive influence there, as well as for our street crime unit.”

The street crime unit started in 2008, with Kijanowski among its first members. The unit was successful from the beginning. “When we implemented that program, our crime rate went down and our drug arrest went up because we found that people that were committing these other crimes were also drug users,” he said. “Our goal with that street crime unit is to put people that sell narcotics or sell drugs in our community in prison.”

Kijanowski says having officers in the schools serves two purposes. “We’re honestly trying to get into that school system to provide protection to those children, but also to provide guidance and show them a positive way in life and try to get them on the right path if they are on the wrong path. Having that officer in there is definitely a positive thing, not only for the school, but it’s a good thing for the police department. It’s good for us for kids to see us, especially in junior high and high school, not as just the cops who are out there trying to bust you, but a resource for them. We’re human beings, come and talk to us.”

The street crime unit is in desperate need of more personnel, he said. “That street crime unit is important; right now, we have half an officer in that unit. Basically, he’s a dual role officer. He’s doing our general investigations and our street crimes unit, but that’s one-man unit now, so that’s tough. With this grant, we’re going to be able to beef that unit up and go out there and focus on the violent crime issue, the guns issues, the drug issues. I think they’re all interconnected, and I think it’s in connection with mental health as well. If you’re on drugs, you might be on drugs because you have a mental health issue you want to try to solve, or those drugs can lead to those kinds of problems. So definitely supporting that program is important to me. We had three guys in that unit at once. And now I said, we’re down to a half guy, but we’ll get the two by the end of the year, hopefully, if things continue.”

“This money, $250,000 is a lot of money. You know, we are a small town. We have limited income. Things are looking better for Kewanee as a whole, but we need to continue that. You know, strong fiscal trends and proper budgeting and things like that. So, any type of assistance from the state or from the federal government is just extremely, extremely helpful to us.”

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