Peoria Police Officer Preparing for Resident Role
By: Alexandra Sutter WMBD/WYZZ
Updated: March 24, 2013
It's a program that's new to Peoria.
An officer will move into a neighborhood and fully dedicate himself to
improving it. Chief Steve Settingsgaard said, "Ideally, an officer after a number
of years will be able to help build up the neighborhood to the point that he
really kind of works himself out of a job and he's no longer needed there."
The University East Neighborhood is
the first on the list. It's an area that's slowly started to go by the wayside.
Settingsgaard said, "We've got a mixture in there of people who are fighting
for the neighborhood and we have some problem houses. We have drug houses in
there, we've had several problem properties along Columbia Terrace."
The first Resident Officer will be
Ryan Winkle. He said, "It's going to be a 24/7 job. People are going to be able
to knock on my door at two in the morning and that's part of the job and that's
what I signed up for."
Officer Winkle said it's an
opportunity for the department to be proactive and able to get ahead of issues
before they become problems. He said, "There's a few nuisance properties here and
there and I think if we deal with those and take care of those problems we can
help that neighborhood out immensely."
For Peoria, it's a starting point. If
it all goes well, Chief Settingsgaard said he'd love to see the program expand.
He said, "If money could be found in the future, I could see this expanding to
more, and certainly we have more neighborhoods that could use this."
Officer Winkle is set to move to his
new home in May. The city has budgeted for two more officers just like him. No
official word on where they will be.
