The Village of Forest View has a new police chief, and former Chief Bianel Zarate has been demoted to sergeant.
The issue arose at the Oct. 28 regular meeting of the Forest View Board of Trustees when there was an agenda item to remove Zarate as chief.
The board went into executive session to discuss the demotion and returned to open session after about an hour of heated discussion.
Mayor David Liska could have taken the demotion item off the agenda and Zarate would have remained chief, but he chose to leave the demotion on the agenda.
Trustee Mike Grossi moved to veto the demotion, but after no other trustee seconded the motion, Zarate’s demotion was finalized.
Zarate was hired as a full-time Forest View police officer in December 2008. He was named chief Aug. 3, 2023, following the departure of Chief Steven Stelter and was sworn in on Aug. 22.
Before joining Forest View, Zarate began his law enforcement career as a part-time officer with the Berwyn Police Department. He remains a sergeant with Forest View.
Liska, who was a trustee at the time Zarate was appointed chief and was the sole dissenting vote, told the Desplaines Valley News, “I can’t give details at this time on why he was removed as chief. While he was chief, he did a lot of good things, but some things needed to be addressed. I didn’t just wake up one morning and think this needed to happen. It was well thought out. After taking over as mayor, I wanted to take six months to look at everything before making any changes.”
Liska was elected mayor in the April municipal election.
He explained that under village rules, when a department head is removed, the mayor has five days to report the action to the board of trustees. The board can then veto the removal, but in this case, only Trustee Grossi moved to do so.
During public comment before the board’s discussion, most of the village’s police force attended to show support for Zarate, citing high morale and increased department numbers. One officer urged the board to “watch the videos” but declined to elaborate.
When asked if those videos influenced his decision, Liska told the Desplaines Valley News that the videos were unrelated to Zarate’s removal. He said the videos pertained to ongoing cases from March and September involving two other officers.
Zarate and most other officers believe his demotion was connected to an investigation he initiated regarding those videos and an incident involving two officers in March.
Any investigation of officers, by law, has to be reported to the Illinois Law Enforcement Standards and Training Board, which Zarate did.
After Zarate’s demotion, former Willow Springs Police Chief Jim Ritz was officially hired and approved by the board as the new Forest View police chief. He was scheduled to be sworn in as chief at the Tuesday, November 11, meeting.