Illinois State Police sergeant fights to bring down expressway shootings
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Illinois State Police claim expressway shootings are down significantly since they ramped up efforts to secure the roads in the past year.
Now, on the anniversary of the start of their targeted efforts, they're honoring officers for their work so far.
CBS2's Sabrina Franza spoke with one officer, who said the event Thursday was not just a push to do more, but also a reminder of what landed him in law enforcement in the first place.
Illinois State Police Sgt. Timothy Mayerbock walked across the stage Thursday, as he was recognized for almost 12 years of service in an ongoing battle to keep Chicago-area expressways safe.
"The street talks, and I know that the street knows the Illinois State Police are in it from start to finish," Sgt. Mayerbock said.
Mayerbock is now the supervisor of the Statewide Antiviolence Enforcement (SAVE) Unit. The honors Thursday were a reminder of where it all started for him.
In 2008, Mayerbock was a student athlete studying psychology at Northern Illinois University. On Feb. 14 of that year, a man in a trenchcoat pulled out a gun and opened fire in a lecture hall at NIU's Cole Hall.
"Just the look of sheer terror – that kind of terror was so dramatic," he said.
Mayerbock rushed a colleague to safety.
"Taking a look inside the building, I saw one of the students there that was shot in the leg; grazed in the leg with a shotgun," he said.
But Mayerbock wanted to do more.
"Immense feeling of guilt – there was a lot of guilt," he said, "because even though I knew I had helped that student, you're still - in the back of your mind, you're thinking, what else could I have done?"
Mayerbock became an Illinois state trooper. After last year's record number of expressway shootings at 264, his unit – SAVE – started working with new technology to get those numbers down.
That technology was license plate readers, or LPRs.
Now, police claim there have been 84 fewer expressway shootings on Chicago expressways this year to date. There have been 114 so far this year, compared with 198 for the same period last year.
"We want to make sure that we're continually utilizing these resources by interchanging; using them smartly; not being too reliant on any one resource," Mayerbock said.
We have told you about, and reported on, license plate readers helping state police close cases across Chicago area expressways. Now, we are learning even more cameras are coming to 20 additional counties across the state of Illinois.
"That will create a network that will be very helpful to us to help us identify people who are perpetrating these acts of violence, but also to identify potential witnesses; other people who are victims that may not even realize they've seen some criminal activity," said Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly.
So far, state police have installed about two thirds of the LPRs. They expected to have 300 by this point.
An additional $20 million will extend the program across the state.
