Police decline charges against Glenwood administrator following investigation into use of emergency lights
The Glenwood village administrator will not face charges in response to a resident’s claims he activated the emergency lights on his municipal vehicle during a traffic dispute, according to police reports.
Glenwood resident Pamela Darring told police Sept. 13 she had been pulled over three weeks prior by another driver who she recognized to be Brian Mitchell, the village administrator, who she said told her to slow down before going on his way.
Darring said she was not speeding and felt her rights were violated because someone not associated with law enforcement detained her.
The police report states the individual, determined through context to be Mitchell, said he did activate the emergency lights on his village vehicle, resulting in Darring pulling to the side of the road. Mitchell told officers he pulled to the side of Darring’s car, rolled down his window and “advised the driver of the vehicle to slow down.”
Mitchell told officers he activated his emergency lights after Darring had “sped past” him and cut him off, forcing him to make an “evasive action in order to not be struck by” Darring’s car, according to the police report.
Darring said she was driving on 183rd Street Aug. 25 when the driver of the black SUV tried to cut her off as they passed Halsted Street, where multilane 183rd turns into single-laned Arquilla Drive. After a short interaction in which Darring said she told him she was not speeding, she said he told her to have a nice day and pulled away.
Glenwood detective Paul Schmidt wrote in an Oct. 24 supplemental report that he didn’t find actions taken by either involved party met the statutory requirements of a criminal charge.
Schmidt, Mitchell and the trustees did not respond to requests for comment and police Chief Derek Peddycord could not be reached. Village attorney John Donahue declined to comment. Glenwood Mayor Ronald Gardiner told the Daily Southtown Oct. 25 he would provide comment, but could not be reach despite multiple calls this week.
Police attempted to view video footage from a nearby condominium, but said the nearby cameras’ video archive had been automatically cleared in the 10 days after the Aug. 25 event, before Darring submitted her complaint.
Illinois law on what vehicles can have emergency lights states the use of red or white lights is allowed on “vehicles of public utilities (or) municipalities,” such as the one Mitchell says he was driving. However, the lights on these municipal vehicles can only be used “as a means for indicating the presence of a traffic hazard “while such vehicles are engaged in maintenance, service, or construction on a highway,” the law reads.
