The Daily Herald reports that DGPD Officer Randall J. Caudill Jr. was arrested today for allegedly using his police computer for personal reasons, including gathering license plate information and other data. He has been charged with four counts of official misconduct, according to the story, which you can read here.
The report quotes Deputy Police Chief Kurt Bluder as saying,”We do not tolerate misconduct or inappropriate behavior.” The DGPD participated in the investigation, which was spearheaded by DuPage County Sheriff John Zaruba, the Herald reports.
I assumed police officers did this all the time…(.hey, TV detectives always seem to have a cop buddy who unofficially pulls up license plate info for them!)
Without knowing more details, it doesn’t seem that serious to me. Now, if he used it for stalking purposes or something that’s another matter….
Sadly, the allegations of criminal conduct by the officer appear to be very, very serious:
http://bit.ly/926dW8
Wow-
Although I absolutely love the idea of anyone stealing anything from a drug dealer, I guess we can’t have officers overstepping boundaries.
Unsettling.
I hope they offer a job to one of the police officers who they let go this year. That would be nice!
I think there is alot more to this story that we have not heard yet.
This hardly is surprising. The lack of visible patrols or any kind of violations reported in the newspaper crime logs for 75th st. driving infractions just show the poor level of attention DGPD pays. Only Main st. and Ogden get any attention.
There is clearly more to this than just “running license plates for personal use”. While I agree that getting money from the drug dealers is a noble cause, he was apparently trying to get money from this particular person by using his status as a police officer. Using department resources for personal use is strictly prohibited. This sounds to me like “personal use”. Just sayin
@ Earl Higgins: Is 75th street the divider between downers and woodridge? If so there may be jurisdiction issues with pulling people over there. Agreed I never see cops on 75th,
and is the drug dealer still free to roam about the town? That’s what I am wondering this morning?
As a resident of 38 years, I have always been troubled by the turnover in the police dept. It seems like no cop ever stays more than 2 years or so. None of them seem to hang around for very long. Why is this? What is the average tenure and average age of an officer? What do they get paid? How many hours per week do they work? Perhaps the pay is so bad that supplements are required.
About 15 years ago, I listened to the PD calls on a scanner I had. Most of what I heard were calls into HQ for license plate checks. Some of the calls were to notify HQ of taking a break or lunch. The radio was always busy after a T-storm. Power outages would automatically trip burglar alarms causing a visit by a squad car to check. Overall, it was pretty dull listening.
It is not clear in the article, was he looking up license plates for himself or other people? If for other people, we should find out who they were, and then they should be prosecuted too!!!
Wondering if there will be an internal investigation of the entire police force or even if this is an isolated incident with one patrolmen or others possible involved. Hopefully it’s just isolated to this one person.
Greg…. I’m not sure where you got your information about “turnover” at Downers Grove Police, but your information/informant is incorrect. I happen to know that officers stay quite a long time. Of course, as with every job, some people come and stay a short time, but if you were to check with Human Resources at the Village you will find that the majority of the officers have more than 10 years on the department, and quite a few with over 20 years. Except for this isolated incident, Downers Grove Police Department is a superb organization run by a conscientious Chief and Deputy Chiefs. I don’t think an “internal” investigation would reveal anything more than police officers that are dedicated and trustworthy… unfortunately, one bad apple usually spoils everything. I think I’m more concerned that while this “officer” sits in jail, he’s on PAID administrative leave… P A I D ???? Really??? Now THAT’S wrong on many levels! I’d also like to know how he’s going to explain this to his 3 kids.
Oh, and trust me, Downers Grove police DO patrol 75th street… regularly! Just because you don’t see them whenever you are on that street doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Again, this is a fact that can be checked by called the Department and asking!
If they are smart they will never talk about it or omit it again publicly. Only chance is electronic data evidence history proves a conspiracy with the officer in question or other witnesses come forward about this event in question indicating other officers’ knowledge prior to the event. I personally highly doubt any involvement from other officers because of all the oversight, annual training, and the high level of professionals and high expectations out of suburban police officers. My understanding is Downers Grove Police Department is one of the hardest departments to get hired on. If this one isolated incident of the Downers Grove Police Department is the worst thing the Department has seen internally over its one hundred year history, by all means the Downers Grove Police are still doing an outstanding job of keeping Downers safe and solving everybody else’s problems. The Downers Police Department motto should be “Official Problem Solvers.” Look at the bright side of this alleged misuse of power by one officer was caught, somebody is doing their job. Everybody forgets about all of the front page stories of only about peaceful events and high school sports items, there is a reason why everybody wants to raise their kids in Downers and attend Downers’ schools. Come next month we will forget this negative news piece of one of the finest suburban police department in the Chicago area. The other police departments do not want Downers to have a reality TV show because they would have to raise the bar and do more work to achieve Downers standards.