The Soetoro Syndrome ...

Robbins police chief fired in wake of state investigation

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ANTHONY SOUFFLE / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Police Chief Mel Davis and other Robbins officials address members of the media Aug. 20 during a press conference concerning untested rape kits found in the Robbins Police Department¿s evidence room.

By Angie Leventis Lourgos

November 23, 2013

Capt. Douglas J. Smith for weeks wielded a gun and badge in south suburban Robbins, hired to help turn around the struggling Police Department.

His resume touted nearly 30 years of police work in Georgia, in California and on the East Coast. He seemed cocky and slick, bragging of his lengthy career in internal affairs, according to one Cook County sheriff's employee.

But a state agency could find no record that Smith was ever a police officer. He had not been trained by the state to carry a firearm on duty. And his employment evidence included a picture of a fake Los Angeles Police Department badge bearing the serial number 714, rightfully belonging to the fictional Sgt. Joe Friday of "Dragnet."

Smith, 60, resigned this month, though he said in a phone interview that he never impersonated an officer and was hired for his civilian experience. But the scandal has spurred the second unraveling of law enforcement this year in Robbins, a historic village among the oldest incorporated African-American communities in the state.

Police Chief Mel Davis was fired last week, the village clerk said. As the department recovers, law enforcement has been taken over by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, whose office already was investigating a dubious quarry development there that could raze some 100 homes.

The public safety breakdown comes less than a year after the former chief resigned following his second DUI arrest. The longtime mayor quit shortly after.

Davis and current Robbins Mayor Tyrone Ward did not respond to requests for comment.

"I would go so far as to say it has, in many ways, been a lawless village," said Cara Smith, chief of policy and communications for the sheriff.

The crowd at Mello's Barber Shop remembers brighter days in Robbins.

The village was incorporated in 1917 as a haven for African-Americans fleeing oppression in the South. On a recent weekday afternoon, the men getting a shave or haircut talked about days decades ago when Robbins was self-sufficient with its own pharmacy, grocery store and thriving businesses. They ticked off some of their famous former residents: basketball player Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat, actor "Mr. T," actress Nichelle Nichols, Uhura on the original "Star Trek."

Today the village of about 6,000 is among the poorest places in Illinois.

Chris Howard, 40, laments that his home is known to outsiders as a dangerous place.

"If we had the same opportunities as Carol Stream, as Downers Grove, as other places, we'd have a chance," he said. "There hasn't been government in Robbins."

The Police Department in particular has been devoid of leadership.

Former police Chief Johnny Holmes had served the department since the early 1990s until he quit in January after his second DUI arrest in three years. Mayor Irene Brodie, who ran the village for some 30 years, then stepped down. She said she was tired.

Then news broke in August that the department has failed to properly investigate about 200 rape cases since the mid-1970s; the sheriff's department had found 51 untested rape kits there.

Douglas J. Smith was hired in to help fix the department's tarnished reputation. He ended up embroiled in the latest scandal.

The Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board on Nov. 14 demanded he be removed from any police work because none of his law enforcement employment could be verified.

"If Smith continues to work as a police officer, he will be subject to arrest and prosecution for the following criminal offense: False Personation as a police officer. Unlawful Use of Weapons," wrote Kevin T. McClain, the agency's executive director, in a letter to the mayor and police chief.

Sheriff's officials say they are now providing 24-hour law enforcement protection in Robbins. They're also looking into concerns with a proposal to turn 320 acres of the village into a quarry.

About 70 Robbins residents on Thursday evening sat in the pews and milled around in the vestibule of Greater Christian Unity M.B. Church to discuss the quarry development.

Cara Smith told everyone the plan has been delayed until January while the sheriff's department investigates the contract with developer ALM Resources of Riverside. The deal was agreed upon by the former mayor and village trustees.

A few in the crowd occasionally muttered "sweetheart deal" and "that's crooked" at any mention of the quarry plan.

Sheriff Dart in a letter to Mayor Ward this month listed a series of concerns about the project. They included that the developer allegedly had made political contributions to one or more village officials, and that the village allegedly would push for legislation to speed up the process to take residents' homes.

A spokesman for ALM Resources said the project will be good for the community.

Residents, though, are left to wonder who is watching out for their interests and policing their community in the future.

"Everyone in the county is entitled to a basic level of law enforcement," said Smith, the sheriff's official. "It shouldn't matter where you live. But in Robbins, it does. And that's wrong."

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