Kankakee police report rising calls, firearms recoveries and staffing gaps; fire/EMS warn of aging ambulances; council approves bills

Deputy Chief (police) reported to the Kankakee City Public Safety Committee on Oct. 7 that the police department currently has 66 sworn officers active and provided September activity and staffing details.

The department said it handled 6,101 calls for service in September, opened 315 cases, and made 109 adult arrests and two juvenile arrests during the month. The Deputy Chief reported 24 shots-fired incidents in September (two of which were classified as fireworks) and said there were zero homicides that month.

On firearms recoveries, the Deputy Chief said the department recovered nine firearms in the month of September; he also said three additional firearms were removed through an ATF task force and that, over roughly two-and-a-half years, officers have removed about 297 firearms from the streets.

Police personnel and operations: the department…