Five Minutes with Greg Weiss, River Forest Police Chief

Earlier this week, Greg Weiss was For Weiss, 49 and a father of three, the appointment came after spending 14 months at the helm in an interim capacity.

Patch caught up with Weiss, an Army veteran who joined the River Forest force as a patrol officer in 1987, at his village hall office for a quick chat about what's next for River Forest's new top cop.

Patch: What are some of your short-term priorities?

Weiss: Filling some spaces in the department. [Changes in personnel] will leave a potential opening for a deputy chief's position and...an entry level position. But I have no immediate [staffing] changes that I want to make.

Patch: How about some of the longer-term priorities?

Weiss: I'd like to see if we can eventually get some funding for additional cameras at the entryways to our village. In a perfect world, I'd like to see one at Harlem and North, maybe Thatcher and North, maybe a couple along Madison Street.

We have eight cameras now around the TIF District and plan to have two more along Central Avenue, closer to the viaduct...we've had a lot of car burglaries over there and this would be perfect opportunity to reduce those.

I don't think it's necessary in River Forest to one cameras in every corner, but at least the approaches that enter into town would be nice.

Patch: Any other priorities?

Weiss: Working with the Parent Action Committee. There's a myriad of policies pertaining to Oak Park and River Forest like curfew...as soon as [teenagers] cross Harlem, they have different rules. Oak Park is under 18 and River Forest is under 17. The Parent Action Committee was looking at trying to get some of those in parity.

Patch: Was becoming the chief of police always the goal?

Weiss: Law enforcement became a goal when I was in the military, and it was a natural transition from the military.

At that time [I entered the force] I didn't have my degree, you didn't need a degree but that was the time they were trying to professionalize the police profession. Then I started going through school while I was here, night school and weekends, and eventually got my Master's degree in law enforcement administration.

As far as aspiring to be chief, if I never got promoted to sergeant, if I never go promoted to deputy chief, I'd still leave here with my head held high.

But I've always wanted to achieve the next step.