‘We all need to work together,’ more than 150 attend Streator town hall to discuss recent violence

More than 150 people attended a town hall meeting Thursday night at Streator High School to discuss recent violence in the community and solutions moving forward, including a pair of high school seniors who asked questions about safety.

With it being the second town hall meeting since October to address the violence, Deputy Chief Robert Wood opened his comments Thursday by saying he doesn’t like that “we’re here again.”

“It’s ridiculous we have this violence,” said Wood, who told those in attendance there have been 29 reported shootings since Jan. 1 – 10 of them confirmed, including a drive-by shooting on Easter that resulted in the death of a 17-year-old.

“I care about this community and I want everyone to take a second to look to the people to the left and right of you, look to the people behind you – this is the community. This is why we’re here. We all need to work together to solve these problems.”

The meeting featured a panel of Mayor Tara Bedei, City Manager David Plyman, Police Chief John Franklin and Wood, along with Alison Kerestes, Matt Kidder and Laura Hall with the La Salle County State’s Attorney’s Office.

The audience asked questions of the panel, offered some of their own solutions and experiences, and the panel shared information and talked about the city’s response.

“I’ve been with the La Salle County State’s Attorney’s Office for just over 26 years, I’ve seen the change in your town during my career,” Kidder said. “I know why you’re here, you’re frustrated. You’re right to be frustrated. I hope we can have some honest talks that will leave you feeling a little more hopeful than you are right now.”

While Wood said he couldn’t comment on specifics of many cases, especially those with pending investigations, he said the shootings have involved individuals targeting specific individuals.

What’s next? Mayor’s task force

Bedei said she’s organized a violence prevention committee. In the fall, she attended a conference where the Rockford mayor spoke about a year looking at data research to find solutions.

“When Rockford, Illinois looked at youth involved with violent crimes, 75% of the kids that were involved had been a witness or victim to violence in their home,” Bedei said. “How do we break the cycle when we see this at home?”

" ... How do we get the youth to change their mindset, and what they’re seeing is not OK?"

Rockford created a task force, including a Family Peace Center, which is multi-agency. It helps victims of violence as well as someone needing help such as food or counseling. Rockford has a juvenile response team and an educator team.

Bedei said her Streator team will have a behavioral specialist, someone from Safe Journeys which assists victims of domestic and sexual violence and an individual who works with substance abuse.

“I’m sitting together with three moms in our community and seeing what we can do to try to break that cycle and get down to the cause of what’s going on,” Bedei said.

Bedei also said a Neighborhood Watch has been started. The next meeting is 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, at Streator City Hall, 204 S. Bloomington St.

More police, working cameras

Along with Bedei’s task force, Kidder believes Streator needs more police officers. Since October’s meeting, the police department has hired a full-time police officer, allowing it to employ a second full-time investigator, Franklin said, but the city doesn’t compare well in staffing to Ottawa, according to Kidder. Streator is about two-thirds the size of Ottawa, but the Ottawa Police Department has 41 officers, which doubles the size of Streator, Kidder said. Additionally, Ottawa has six full-time investigators compared to two in Streator.

“The guys on Streator Police Department are doing great work, but there’s not enough of them,” Kidder said. “We said six months ago there’s not enough of them. We’ve got find the money. We’ve got to hire bodies.”

Kidder said the first 48 hours of an investigation are the most important.

“When these violent crimes happen, they have to flood the streets with people and get as much information as they can as quickly as they can,” Kidder said. “And if they don’t have the bodies, it just doesn’t work.”

Kidder said Ottawa submitted 1,375 reports to the La Salle County State’s Attorney’s Office in 2024 compared to 479 reports submitted by Streator. He attributed that to Ottawa having more manpower to write citations and make arrests.

Kidder also said the city has to make sure its surveillance cameras work at the “problem places we all know exist.” He said Ottawa has 20 license plate reading cameras. Streator recently purchased four more license plate reading cameras this month to acquire a total of 12.

Bedei said the city discovered an electrical issue causing its surveillance cameras to fail periodically downtown. She said the Streator City Council is looking at spending about $200,000 to make necessary electrical repairs to ensure those cameras work.

Franklin said Streator has worked with La Salle County Sheriff’s Office, Livingston County Sheriff’s Office and the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Narcotics Team. He said warrants carried out by Tri-DENT have increased and have been used as a proactive approach.

Community outreach

Kidder and Wood agreed that victims of violent crimes are becoming less cooperative with police and said that’s why the community is being asked more to share what they see. Some in the audience said victim cooperation is limited because of a lack of trust or perceived trust in the police and called for more community outreach.

Franklin and Wood said the police put focus on community outreach, whether it’s Franklin reading regularly at Streator Head Start, attending Jamming at the Clock or police officers patrolling the City Park or carnival, among other activities.

Wood said patrols have been increased in the City Park, including some on foot when officers have the time, and indicated police have provided more support to Northlawn Junior High School since it has been without a school resource officer.

A resident who spoke during public comment but did not give her name noted after an incident on Shabbona Street police increased patrols in the neighborhood, including the police chief making rounds himself and talking to people in the neighborhood.

Dave DeMoss said he’s noticed an increase in minors getting involved in the recent violence and suggested a community youth group to be more proactive on identifying issues and providing positive alternatives. Franklin said he’d be willing to help DeMoss organize one.

Rental property inspections

Bedei said the city is working on another round of its rental inspection program to identify properties where landlords are not providing safe conditions.

She said the city has made use of nuisance abatement rules, which allow the city to acquire and demolish frequently problematic rental properties. She said she wrote a letter to lawmakers opposing legislation that would make it more difficult for cities to use the law and encouraged residents to reach out to legislators, saying it has been a good tool for the city.

The city was able to demolish a rental property on Hickory Street that was tied to a homicide investigation and where police had received more than 150 calls in eight years (not all criminal complaints, Bedei said).

‘Violence Interrupter’

Tio Hardiman, president and creator of Violence Interrupters NFP, spoke Thursday at the town hall and said he’s worked at preventing intercity violence in Chicago, among other places. He studies it and teaches classes about it.

He said he would like to conduct a training session in Streator with the police department and community members. He said getting results is about changing mindsets and circumstances. Go to www.violenceinterrupters.org for more information.

A full video of the meeting is expected to posted to the city’s YouTube website.