Lemont Police Department Joins DuPage MERIT Task Force

LEMONT, IL — At its Jan. 27 meeting, the Lemont village board approved an intergovernmental agreement with DuPage County Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigation Team task force, which was created in 2019. According to board documents, the Lemont Police Department will now be a member of the new task force, and will leave the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force.

Board documents state major crimes task forces function as a way for small municipalities to have the manpower resources to investigate a major crime. In the past 14 years, Lemont Police Department has requested activation of the task force two times.

However, according to board documents, the frequency of major crimes in the south suburbs has increased over the years. Lemont police officers have gone on 12 call-outs per year for crimes in other districts.

Due to this, board documents state it has cost the village $8,565 in regular time lost and $12,848 in overtime per year to respond to the South Suburban Major Crimes Task Force duties.

According to board documents, the DuPage County Metropolitan Emergency Response and Investigation Team will average four call-outs per year and will save costs for the village. The police department will have access to crisis negotiations, SWAT, K-9 response, major crash reconstruction, incident management assistance team, planned events, crime scene investigation, computer forensics, investigations, major crimes/officer-involved shootings and intelligence, through the new agreement.