Plainfield Police Win National Award for Second Year

For the second consecutive year, the has taken first place in a national law enforcement competition.

The National Law Enforcement Challenge Award was presented to Plainfield Police Chief John Konopek at the International Association’s Chiefs of Police conference held in Chicago at the end of October. The department also won the state equivalent of this competition earlier this year.

Because Plainfield has received the top award two years in a row, it will compete next year against departments that are far larger than the village, including the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the Illinois State Police.   

According to the application form, the challenge measures department achievement in three traffic safety categories: occupant protection, impaired driving and speeding. Programs like Click It or Ticket and drunken driving awareness campaigns have to be high-profile enforcement details that put the issues in the public eye and achieve measurable results.

A department must also demonstrate its efforts in training its officers on traffic safety methods and providing incentives and recognition for officers, and show the overall effectiveness it's achieved in terms of drops in fatal, injury and property damage accidents.

The campaigns are orchestrated by Traffic Sgt. Eric Munson, who also compiles the information needed for the contest application. His efforts were applauded Monday night by the Plainfield Village Board.

Competition categories are determined by the number of sworn officers in a department. Plainfield falls into the 46 to 75 officer level. The smallest category is one to 10 sworn officers; the largest is 2,501 or more sworn officers.

In its category, Plainfield beat Addison, Ill., which took second place, and Peachtree City, Ga., which took third. The only other area department to place was Lemont, which took third in the 26 to 45 sworn officers category. The Illinois State Police took first place in the state police-highway patrol category for 1,001 to 2,500 officers.