Plainfield Chief, Officers Part of NATO Security Force

All eyes were on Chicago during the May 20 and 21 NATO summit, as dignitaries from around the world and protesters alike flooded the city.

And as Chicago police worked to keep the city safe — and demonstrators under control – during the diplomatic talks, some of Plainfield’s finest were there to back them up.

Chief John Konopek helped lead a contingent from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) as they provided crowd control.

Konopek said he arrived in the city the Friday before the summit, held at Chicago’s McCormick Place.

“I was second in charge with the whole deployment, so I went up a day early,” Konopek said, adding eight officers from Plainfield were also part of the security force.

The deployment’s role was primarily crowd control, according to Konopek.

“My team was actually inside the security perimeter at McCormick Place,” he said.

Konopek estimated 5,000 to 8,000 protesters descended on the city. Initially, a crowd of 50,000 was anticipated.

“That's why there was such a large police presence; obviously, it wasn’t the huge [protester]” presence that was initially expected, Konopek said.

“It was basically our mission to make sure everyone had the ability to exercise their constitutional right to free speech,” Konopek said, while working to thwart demonstrators who had more than free speech on their minds.

“There’s a small group that showed up basically to do property damage, do criminal acts,” the chief said. “Their only agenda was to disrupt whatever was going on. They’ll embed themselves in the regular crowd and try to get them riled up.”

Konopek commended Chicago law enforcement with keeping the streets safe.

“Chicago police did an excellent job with intelligence,” he said. “They became aware of people allegedly making Molotov cocktails. If those things had been introduced into the protests, it could have had tragic consequences.”

For the ILEAS contingent, the summit was an opportunity for members to be part of an international event.

“It was a great experience for our folks,” Konopek said. “It’s not every day that you get to work in the international stage.”

ILEAS offers mutual aid for crowd control, disasters and major emergencies, playing a role in events ranging from the 2009 G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh to disaster response following the 2010 Streator tornado and flooding in southern Illinois last spring.

“ILEAS as a whole is really getting its name out as a model across the country,” Konopek said.