Getting There, 537 Highland Ave, Oak Park, IL 60304, US

Officials within the Oak Park Police Department say its commitment to community policing "isn't just a title or philosophy." Instead, Deputy Chief Anthony Ambrose says, community policing is practiced by everyone in the department, from patrolmen to detectives. That means a group of the village's 116 sworn officers are covering portions of Oak Park at any given time, with an eye toward preventing, and reacting to, crime and promoting public safety. To that end, the department assigns several officers to work from their homes, situated within their beats. The goal is to open the lines of communication between the department and Oak Park's neighborhoods. Oak Park police have a street-crimes unit, traffic-enforcement unit and juvenile unit. They also dedicate officers to the West Suburban Directed Gang Enforcement, a regional crimefighting effort made up of officers in Forest Park, River Forest, Brookfield, Lyons, Riverside, Stickney, North Riverside and Berwyn. Additional numbers for the department include a Crime Tip Hotline at 708-434-1636 and a non-emergency number at 708-386-2131.