By Jeff Vorva
The Beecher Police Department will join forces with the Steger, Crete, and Monee departments to subscribe to a service that will allow the police to retrieve information stored in cellphones.
At the November 25 meeting, the Beecher Board of Trustees voted to allow Beecher to join the Cellebrite Equity Sharing project.
Beecher Police Chief Terry Lemming said this will help area departments out considerably on major crimes. He said once a warrant on a suspect is obtained, the Cellebrite software takes over from there.
“The software allows you to break into the phone,” he said. “It allows you to record what’s on there and retrieve deleted information and other cool stuff. Right now, when we have a situation, we have to bring the telephone to Joliet, and it takes a long time.”
He added the service right here in the immediate area and having an officer trained to perform the work will save a lot of time.
The cost will be $1,200 a year for Beecher’s share of the subscription.
No ordinary Joe
Beecher Blessings, a non-profit group that helps residents with hardships, picked-up a nice assist from a man whom board members know well.
“We had an elderly couple whose water heater went out,” Lemming said. “We bought them a water heater and former trustee Joe Gianotti installed it for nothing. What a great guy.”
Gianotti left the board in July for family reasons.
Beecher bits
•The board passed a tax levy for 2024 to be collected in 2025, with a zero percent increase.
•The village will repay a loan of close to $794,000 via the use of Motor Fuel Tax funds for the Penfield Street improvement project.
•Board meetings will begin at 6 p.m. rather than 7 p.m. starting with the December 9 meeting.