Rockford Illinois Police Officers Association PB&PA Unit 6

10/14/2026

2024: $32 million surplus
2025: $25 million surplus
2026: Balanced Budget
2027: 🤨

Record revenue. Budget deficits. Something stinks at city hall….

It’s the time of year to talk money for the City of Rockford with a proposed budget drafted and a special finance task force leading the way.

10/12/2026

10/09/2026

⛔️Caution🚨 In order to cover the projected budget deficit. The city is proposing 20 layoffs in 2027. RPD wants you. The City of Rockford doesn’t.

10/09/2026

Have you called 911 or the non-emergency number only to wait hours or days for a response?

More pet projects and painted stop signal boxes should help.

Quit lying to your citizens. Prioritize public safety. The geographical boundaries of the city have grown exponentially over the last decade with zero increases in public safety staffing.

Don’t let the *nationwide* “downtrend” in violent crime fool you. Reductions in public safety means a LESS SAFE Rockford.

Rockford City Hall has a public safety crisis, and Acting Mayor Janessa Neal and the City Council own it.

Police officers are working without a contract.

Firefighters are working without a contract.

911 operators are reportedly being forced to work more than 12 days in a row.

And City Hall’s answer to its budget problems? Put as many as 20 police officers on the chopping block, including detectives who investigate shootings, violent crimes, and the cases that keep dangerous people off our streets.

Enough!

You cannot claim public safety is a priority while refusing to take care of the very people responsible for providing it.

Fire has already lost Medic 4. Calls for service did not disappear when that ambulance did.

Our 911 dispatchers should not have to work themselves into the ground because City Hall cannot properly staff the center.

And Rockford families should not have fewer police officers and detectives protecting them because politicians cannot get their financial house in order.

Tom McNamara left. The City Council chose Janessa Neal to finish the term. But the problems did not leave with him.

No police contract.

No fire contract.

Overworked 911 dispatchers.

And now potentially fewer cops on the street.

This is not leadership. This is a failure to perform one of the most basic responsibilities of government: keeping people safe.

Acting Mayor Neal and the City Council need to stop making excuses.

SIGN THE CONTRACTS.

STAFF 911.

TAKE POLICE LAYOFFS OFF THE TABLE.

Public safety is not where you go looking for spare change when the budget gets tight.

The men and women answering 911 calls, running toward fires, responding to shootings, investigating murders, and protecting Rockford deserve better.

More importantly, the people of Rockford deserve better.

09/22/2026

Imagine calling a staffing reduction a “return to previous staffing.” Fewer Fire apparatuses mean longer response times and less personnel on major scenes. The two apparatuses being eliminated handled nearly 5,000 combined calls for service. Guess where those calls get diverted to?

Public safety is being cut city wide. The Police are being told to slash their budget. Shifts are at bare minimum even with several overtime spots filled.

911 telecommunicators are mandated for weeks on end with no time off. Radio channels and phone lines are still left unstaffed.

What does that mean for residents?

A less safe Rockford.

08/31/2026

08/05/2026

I believe the younger generation would call the timing of this article “sus” as both we and City of Rockford Firefighters Local 413 negotiate contracts with the city.

The city also heavily lobbied for and won “pension reform” over 15 years ago which was supposed to alleviate their alleged dilemma.

The City of Rockford Government has been diverting money away from and underfunding the pension system for decades. Every Rockford Officer contributes the full statutory amount to their pensions every paycheck, yet the city cries foul when they short the system and decades of fiscal irresponsibility come to roost.

07/18/2026

The Police Department is currently understaffed by 23 officers. They are 198 days without a contract. The city will say there is not a recruitment or retention problem, but officers still leave for other agencies with better pay and less work load. A good percentage of new officers cannot pass through the training program. The city cannot attract qualified applicants. Application Numbers ≠ Talent.

There were 17 officers working to cover the entire City of Rockford when this occurred. With 6 assigned west of the river. “Officers were already on scene when the shots were fired.” Of course they were, this “takeover” had been going on for hours. What are they expected to do with 6 officers? What are they expected to do with 12 or 17 officers? Hundreds refusing to leave, terrorizing residents.

Today, another Ambulance is out of service due to lack of staffing.

Non-emergency calls ring and ring with no one to answer because the 911 center is critically understaffed. Dispatchers mandated 30+ days in a row. Many throwing up their arms and quitting.

Meanwhile city administrators:
“We need to cut back on OT”
“Get ready to have your budget slashed next year.”

03/03/2026

Ida Patterson was one of Rockford’s first Policewomen. A Rockford native born in 1874, she graduated from Rockford High School in 1893. She then spent 25 years as a teacher, and then principal at Rockford public schools.

In 1919 Patterson resigned as principal at Church School to help establish the Rockford Police Department’s Woman’s Bureau. Joining her in that task was Mrs. Anna C. Peterson. At the time many police departments around the country were beginning to use policewomen to work with women and children. Patterson served 10 years as a police matron.

She was also a founding member of Rockford Women’s Business and Professional Club and served as President of the State Federation. When Patterson died in 1929 Mayor Burt Allen and Police Chief August Bargren were among her pallbearers.

12/25/2025

Merry Christmas from the men and women of PB&PA Unit 6 🎄