Law & Order column: Round Lake Beach police chief retires
Round Lake Beach Police Chief Wayne Wilde retired this month after 28 years of service with the village, Mayor Scott Nickles announced.
Wilde, who was named to the post in 2022 following the retirement of Gil Rivera, said serving as chief has been his greatest honor.
'I would like to thank the men and women of the Round Lake Beach Police Department for their hard work and dedication, and to the RL Fire Protection District and CenCom E911 telecommunicators, who together as a team, keep the citizens we serve safe,' he said.
'We are deeply grateful to Wayne for his many years of dedicated service to the village of Round Lake Beach,' the mayor said. 'He's been an outstanding officer, commander, and chief. His expertise, dedication, leadership, and incredible personality will be greatly missed at Village Hall.'
Wilde was hired as a patrol officer in 1997, and was promoted to sergeant in 2007. He was named deputy chief in 2016. During his career, he held a number of specialty roles in the department, including serving as field training supervisor and commander of investigations.
The village is expected to announce the new police chief at its Monday meeting.
Gun deaths tracker
The Lake County State's Attorney's Office this month unveiled an online feature to track gun deaths in the county.
The Firearms Fatality Dashboard, as it's known, is intended to keep residents and other interested parties up to date on the latest statistics. The dashboard is part of the ongoing efforts of the Gun Violence Prevention Initiative started by the State's Attorney Eric Rinehart.
'Gun violence is measurable and preventable,' he said. 'As a community and as a democracy, we should have accurate, up-to-date gun violence information available at our fingertips. This dashboard is a vital tool to give us that information quickly so that we can help others and have meaningful community conversations about how to save lives.'
The dashboard will track all gun deaths, including suicides, accidental shootings and undetermined fatalities, the LCSAO said. Previously, such data was not easy to find. The data will be updated weekly by Lake County Coroner Jennifer Banek's office, which helped create the tracker.
Teens with guns
Three teens, including two from Lake County, were arrested after they were found to be in possession of an assault rifle and a handgun following a traffic stop, according to the sheriff's office.
A Lake County deputy pulled over their car at around 8:15 p.m. on April 13 near the corner of 27th Street and Galilee Avenue in Zion. When the trio inside, all 17-year-old males, appeared nervous and were evasive in their answers, a K9 unit was called.
One of the passengers tried to run away when an officer was patting him down, police said. The officer tackled the youth and found a handgun with a 23-round magazine. The other two people tried to run, but were taken into custody.,
Police said they found an AK-style assault rifle in the car, as well as drugs.
The teens, one from Chicago and the others from Lindenhurst and the Antioch area, were brought to the youth detention facility in Vernon Hills. They were charged with unlawful weapons possession and resisting arrest.
Burglary arrests
Sheriff's deputies and officers from a regional task force arrested four men who broke into a Long Grove residence Wednesday.
Officers with the North Regional Major Crimes Task Force were surveilling a Range Rover with three suspected burglars at around 3:30 p.m. when they saw the vehicle stop in the 4200 block of Hilltop Road and saw two people from the car enter the home.
Police said that a second vehicle was acting as a lookout. After the burglary, the two men ran back to the Range Rover and the vehicle drove away. NORTAF officers deployed a tire-deflation device to slow the lookout car.
Police followed the Range Rover, and three occupants fled after their vehicle was slowed by heavy traffic. Police took all four into custody.
The men, all Chicago residents, were charged with residential burglary. Police believe they are part of a larger operation.
'This is a great example of what we can accomplish when law enforcement agencies work together. NORTAF has done an incredible job conducting long-term investigations into burglary crews that have been plaguing the suburbs,' Sheriff John Idleburg said.
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