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New Niles police chief seeks better links with public
By Ed Runyan
NILES
Robert J. Hinton Jr., sworn in as Niles police chief on Wednesday, was the last Niles patrolman to walk the downtown beat on foot patrol when he started with the department in 1983.
Twenty-eight years later, after assisting victims of the 1985 tornado and rising through the ranks, serving as captain over the road-patrol division the last 11 years, Hinton says his earliest days in the department reinforce an important concept: face-to-face contact with the community.
“You need to get out of the cruiser. You need to meet the public,” Hinton said during an interview this week, adding that officers also should attend neighborhood-watch meetings to establish relationships.
“The community is full of information, and our function is to give them the ability to have two-way communication with our agency,” he said.
“You never know when someone will give you the information you need to solve a crime because the public feels comfortable talking to you.”
Hinton, 52, by virtue of scoring a nearly perfect 98 out of 99 on the civil-service exam for chief, now expands his duties from supervising the 34 police officers to having responsibility for the entire 56-employee department.
Hinton believes he already has the administrative experience to run the department, having previously worked on departmental finances, budgets and grant administration. “I have a financial background,” he said.
As chief, Hinton believes he can improve departmental morale.
“I want to make this a place where officers want to come to work, concentrate on the streets, and not on internal issues of the department.” Hinton said internal issues have led to officers’ filing numerous grievances.
The department has had to make due with a smaller budget in 2011 than in 2010 — $3.55 million compared with $3.84 million — and Hinton is hopeful the $300,000 reduction can be restored to the budget next year.
He hopes to bring the department’s staffing back to the 36 officers it had before the retirement of former Chief Bruce Simeone and former head of the detective bureau, Capt. Chuck Wilson.
Hinton would like to see the department have a second traffic officer, for the afternoon shift, because of the number of accidents the department investigates in the busy Eastwood Mall commercial area.
A second canine officer and one or more officers focused on troubleshooting problem areas also would help, Hinton said.
Hinton said he’s especially concerned about the increasing prevalence of illegal drug use in the community, something that contributes to most of the crime.
“We’re aware of 12-year-olds using heroin,” Hinton said.
The department no longer has a Niles police officer working in the city school district, and Hinton is hopeful that will change.
“We had five fights in one day,” Hinton said, adding that the visibility of an officer in the schools eliminates a number of problems.
Hinton believes crime is on the rise in the city.
“I grew up in Niles,” the chief said. “I’ve been in Niles since the second grade. I’ve seen how the crime has increased, and I want to squelch that. I want Niles to be a place where if you do crime, you’re going to pay the price.”