2021/07/12 - Mayor's Column: Help Us Keep O'Fallon Safe
“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
We have an excellent Police Department that is well trained and strives to make every contact a professional interaction. It is because of them that we have one of the safest cities in the State of Illinois.
I would like to share with you something that took place about ten days ago that should point out this fact to you and should explain why the police need your help to keep our city one of the safest.
A group of young men from across the river came into our community late at night. By the time they got to O’Fallon they had already stolen two cars. They proceeded to go through our neighborhoods looking for what they could steal easily and ransack unlocked cars. They found an unlocked car and stole that also.
Our police responded, located the young men, who then fled from the police. One of the youths was in possession of a firearm. Our police took proper precautions and appropriate actions, which resulted in the recovery of two of the stolen cars and the arrest of two of the thieves. One of those arrested was the one with the gun, which he tried to hide as police closed in on him.
We want to keep O’Fallon as one of the safest cities in Illinois, but the police need your help. We ask for your assistance in practicing some simple actions like:
- Don’t leave your car unlocked, even at home in your driveway at night.
- Don’t leave keys in the vehicle.
- Don’t leave valuables in the car or in plain sight.
I am personally asking you for your help in keeping our City Safe for several reasons.
- Our police cannot be everywhere at all times.
- These types of criminals are looking for easy targets.
- Due to recent changes in Illinois laws, it is possible that criminals from Missouri are looking for easy targets in Illinois, because if they are caught in the future, they will be able to get out of jail without bail. That is not true in Missouri and other surrounding States.
We do not want O’Fallon to be a city that attracts these types of criminals.
You will probably not read about this in the papers, or on Facebook, or any other media because your police department took the appropriate actions even when they were at risk as one of the individuals possessed a loaded gun and could have brought great bodily harm to an officer. Despite this, your officers did not use their weapons.
Let us let criminals know that we are going to make it difficult for them to steal from us and that we will take precautions vs putting out an open invitation to all thieves.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!