By Ted Schnell • BocaJump | Feb. 20, 2012

Positions that have gone unfilled and the departure via buyout of a deputy chief have Police Chief Jeffrey Swoboda wanting to reorganize the department’s leadership to reflect what is needed today with a leaner, more hands-on administration.

Swoboda, nearly two years into his tenure as the city’s top cop, goes before the City Council this week to request approval of the reorganization in a move for greater efficiency and to reflect that the department no longer has three deputy police chiefs. In fact, the city has had just one since later January, after Bob Beeter accepted a buyout during staff reductions.

“Really, this is just about something I’ve been researching for a while, and this was kind of an opportunity because of having the deputy chief’s (position) open up,” Swoboda said. He said he has been looking at department structures in neighboring cities and towns, including Aurora, to see how they have set up their organizations.

The city’s ordinance establishing the department’s command structure lists a police chief, three deputy chiefs, seven lieutenants and 22 sergeants. The deputy chiefs, Swoboda said Monday morning, have been tasked with primarily administrative roles.

Swoboda wants to continue with just one deputy chief — a position held by Cecil Smith, whose role would continue to be largely administrative. In the past, the city has had three deputy chiefs overseeing contracts, the budget, discipline, training and other administrative tasks.

This change alone, Swoboda said, would mean that for the first time in some time, the department would have one true second-in-command. In the past, if the chief was out of town, deputy chiefs might be appointed acting chief depending on their availability, which created potential confusion in some areas.

The next tier of leadership under the reorganization, he said, would be three commanders who would be involved in some administrative tasks but whose primary roles would be far more hands-on. There would be a commander of operations, a commander of investigations and a commander of adjudication and support.

The chief said he has been talking with potential candidates for the commander positions. He said if the council approves the change, he would like to have the commanders appointed by late March.

The number of lieutenant positions would be reduced from seven to six under the plan, keeping the command hierarchy from sergeant to chief at the same number of positions — 33 — that are called for now.

The city administration is describing the proposal as cost neutral, meaning it will not increase the department’s overall costs. But there are tradeoffs associated with the change.

Elgin police spokesman Lt. Glenn Theriault said Monday afternoon the department is working with School District U-46 to re-evaluate the school crossing guard program to find efficiencies. In January, he said, the department reduced some of those costs simply by trimming work hours by 25 percent to reflect actual hours being worked by the crossing guards. He explained that some guards were assigned to work four hours when their actual workload was just three hours.

He said the department would continue to work with the school district and neighborhood groups to look for greater efficiencies without jeopardizing safety.