The nearly two-year state budget impasse in Springfield is being felt by police departments across the state.

About 500 law enforcement professionals from cities, villages and sheriff offices gathered this week at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 3000 S. Dirksen Parkway, for the 14th Annual Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System Conference. The three-day conference that ended Tuesday included training seminars and was also an opportunity for the officials to network and find out what other departments have been doing.

Timothy Henson, chief of the Dwight Police Department in Livingston County, said his department is holding off on some purchases because of delays in receiving sales tax revenue.

“Some of our squad cars have close to 200,000 miles on them,” Henson said. “When you’re driving them in an emergency capacity, for officer safety and citizen safety, you don’t like to have that many miles on squads.”

Springfield Police Chief Kenny Winslow said his department hasn’t run into any major issues thus far, but they, too, might have to hold off on the purchase of new squad cars.

“There is some training we might have to push back a little bit, and there is some civilian hiring we may have to hold off on a little bit,” Winslow added.

Ed Wojcicki, executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, wasn’t at the ILEAS event, but said he’s heard from chiefs across the state who are concerned about the budget situation.

“Police departments are one of the bigger budget items for a lot of the municipalities. The municipalities are hurting. They have to look for places to trim back, and one of the places they look is the police department,” Wojcicki said.

Like Winslow, Wojcicki mentioned the possible impact on training.

“(The chiefs) are concerned about not having enough money to do all of the training that is required. In the last few years, a lot more training has been required of police. They don’t object to that, but when there’s a reduction in funds, perhaps there could be less money available for the training,” Wojcicki said.

The Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System includes 900 local agencies across the state. It was created in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to help with mutual aid, emergency response and combining resources for public safety, terrorism prevention and response.

Stephenson County Sheriff David Snyders, president of ILEAS, said the system streamlines the process of requesting help from neighboring departments.

“In the old days, if I needed help, I would have to call my neighboring counties and cities. It could involve dozens of phone calls. With the ILEAS method, you make one phone call,” Snyders said.

And it's not just smaller departments that benefit. Snyders said Chicago police reached out to ILEAS for help after the Cubs won the World Series and they needed additional police officers to handle the victory parade.

“Chicago determined they needed many more officers to help control the crowd. The crowd was more than 5 million people. They made one call, and in under 17 hours, they had the people they needed in place in Chicago. I actually sent two deputies myself,” Snyders said.

–Contact John Reynolds: john.reynolds@sj-r.com, 788-1524, twitter.com/JohnReynoldsSJR.