Chain of Quarantine Hair Cuts

Village of Forest View police officers were given a stern reminder of who’s boss ‘round here. In an email sent to the entire police department, Chief Gary Wiseman referred to the individual officers who went above him to report his department violations as “cowards”. Wiseman reminded officers that a chain of command exists which still includes the Deputy Chief of Police Salvador Rodriguez even though he is currently under investigation.

Wiseman’s email was triggered by recent events which included an officer reporting that the Chief invited his personal hair stylist to use the Forest View police station as a temporary place of business.  With the current COVID-19 pandemic and an executive order issued by the Governor of Illinois barring salons and barbers from operating, Wiseman was going to allow his personal hair stylist to operate on village property and provide haircuts for him and other officers. We would assume his stylist wasn’t going to be doing this for free.

If this beauty fair would have taken place, we would bet it would be in violation of some department policies; using the village email system to promote or drive clients to a business in his official capacity as Chief of Police?  Allowing unauthorized persons into the police station? Wiseman’s defense will be that he is the boss and can authorize such a person to violate the governor’s stay at home order and come into the station to violate the order some more and turn a profit. So instead of procuring the correct laptops for the patrol vehicles, Wiseman spent his time setting appointments for some quarantine hair cuts.

Wiseman’s Buzz Kutz event was abruptly canceled.

Four Problems

Gary Wiseman’s email tantrum went on to point out that four village trustees have made it difficult to hire additional manpower.  Why would anyone trust anything Wiseman and his side kick bring before the board.  Gary must have experienced some short-term memory loss. Let us refresh his memory:

• Gary’s Deputy Chief fired or pushed all the reliable part-timers out and brought in his own friends
• No formal background checks were conducted on any of the Deputy Chief’s friends when they were hired
• Gary’s Deputy Chief is currently under investigation for theft of government funds

It is a fact that this manpower crisis was caused by mis-management of the part-time officer roster. Firing or pushing out long time loyal part-time police officers to replace them with hand-picked friends came back to bite Gary and his Deputy Chief.  Most of the current handpicked part-time roster hold full-time positions in other jurisdictions. During the May 12th board meeting, Wiseman informed the board that the officers primary departments may have restricted them from working secondary employment due to the COVID situation. That leaves the Fire Chief of Riverside and another officer who retired from Lyons, but they have been MIA since the Rodriguez investigation started.  Overtime has been through the roof which would indicate that none of Salavdor's friends have been available to work.

The board may be reluctant to allow a new hire under the Larry, Gary & Sal administration since it is very likely that the Deputy Chief Salvador Rodriguez may or may have not conducted a formal background investigation on the candidate.  Even if Rodriguez did complete a background check, after being accused of falsifying records and theft, we don’t think his background check reports are very credible at the moment.

One thing we are curious about is how many Village of Forest View police badges and IDs are out there with these part-time officers that can’t or won’t work?

Broken Chains

In a department meeting, Larry Powell informed officers they would be able to contact him if they needed to discuss any department issues.  Gary and Salvador did not like that idea, but Larry insisted.

A police chief is expected to make sound decisions pertaining to his daily operations as well as his picks for second in command. When Gary isn’t doing his job, you go to Larry. Gary says if you go to Larry about Gary, you are a COWARD.  Second in the “chain of command” is Salvador Rodriguez who under Gary Wiseman’s direct supervision managed to land himself in hot water. When Salvador isn’t doing his Job, you go to Gary. When you go to Gary about Salvador, Gary shows you his collection of police badges on the corner of his desk.  Open door policy only works when you are awake to welcome visitors crossing the threshold.

The department is in shambles, but we are not surprised.  As reported here on the “coward” blog, the village trustees who approved Gary Wiseman’s initial appointment were not informed of Wisemans checkered employment history as a Stickney police officer.  Gary was handed the golden ticket to a free paycheck for sleeping in a manager’s chair watching the park from his window while his deputy chief worked on school district business on the Forest View clock.  How much more of this Wiseman and Rodriguez circus will Larry tolerate?

Once again, steer clear and hide those garbage cans.