Evanston Police Chief Demitrous Cook says the department has received no information that would suggest there will be violence at the polls here on election day.
He says Evanston police have had conversations with state and federal officials about the issue, though, and are prepared to deal with any situation that may come up.
During a meeting of the City Council’s Human Services Committee this evening, Cook said days off for officers have been canceled and police will be patrolling around voting locations.
He says the officers have been instructed not to enter the polls unless there’s a specific request or a call of possible violence. Other than that they’ll just be patrolling parking lots and generally around the voting sites.
He said there would be limited availability on election day of the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System‘s Mobile Field Force that Evanston called in Saturday to deal with a violent demonstration downtown by protesters calling for the abolition of Northwestern University’s police department.
That, he said, is because all the participating NIPAS agencies will have to be prepared to deal with possible election-related issues in their own communities.
Cook said the department’s contingency planning for possible election-related issues stretches beyond election day itself, through Friday of this week.
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