Orland cops honored by ILEAP

By Jeff Vorva

Lemont’s police chief stopped by the Orland Park Board of Trustees meeting to brag a little about the Orland Park Police Department.

Lemont Chief Marc Maton attended the Monday, March 6, meeting to make a presentation on behalf of the Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program for Orland Park’s Tier II re-accreditation.

“The police department runs a state-of-the-art operation,” Maton said. “To achieve Tier II, the department has to demonstrate compliance with 181 professional standards and policy. I will say that this is quite an achievement. It requires a prominent dedication to excellence, so Chief [Eric] Rossi and his team spent months preparing for these standards.”

The four standards are administration, operations, personnel and training. Tier I has 69 standards and Tier II has 181.

Mayor Keith Pekau and the board, who usually go out of the way to praise their police, were happy with the accreditation.

“We all know they are the best in the state but it’s nice to be recognized by your peer group,” Trustee Sean Kampas said. “It’s well deserved.

“Where we do stand tall and set standards is in our follow-through. We invest in our investigations and our closure rates and evidence that we bring to the state’s attorney’s office help to put criminal behind bars.”

Board rules against Pearl Spa

In between the Committee of the Whole and regular board meetings, the board snuck in a special board meeting to hold a hearing on the revocation of the business license of Pearl Spa, 14936 S. Lagrange Road.

The board upheld the revocation, citing that police operations proved there was sexual activity going on at the spas and while a representative from Pearl argued the owner knew nothing about it, the board made its decision.

Praise for officer

Pekau praised officer Rich Miller, who is in charge of Orland Park’s comfort dog, Leo.

While much of the public sees Miller and Leo at parades and public functions having fun, there is another side of the job that many do not see.

“Unfortunately, an officer was killed in Chicago and Rich was there with that family that night,” Pekau said. “It meant a lot to that family so much so that they asked him to be there for other things going forward.

“Sometimes that we forget the toll that takes on Rich having to be there for all of those people at all of those events. So, when you see him, thank him for what he does. It’s not easy. He’s there through a lot of people’s grief.”

CubeSmart coming soon

The board made a few decisions to pave the way for CubeSmart Self-Storage to move into the old Carson’s Furniture building at 66 Orland Square Drive.