South Cook News

Pekau for Congress has issued the following press release:

Orland Park, IL — Candidate for Illinois’ 6th Congressional District and Mayor of Orland Park Keith Pekau highlights how Orland Park achieved actual results in keeping neighborhoods and families safe in Orland Park on his Facebook page today:

“Here in Orland Park, we know that while crime has reached record levels in Chicago and throughout most of Cook County, our community has reduced crime to its lowest level in 27 years. 

We were previously named the safest city in Illinois in 2020, and in 2021, we were named the 8th safest small city (30,000 to 100,000) people in all of America based on FBI crime statistics. Commonsense measures work and the results speak for themselves! 

https://www.moneygeek.com/living/safest-cities/small-cities-and-towns-in-america/”

Keith Pekau says these results were not an accident and provided the below list on how the Village of Orland Park achieved making the community a safer place to live and do business.

How Orland Park Achieves Public Safety Results:

-Support our police department and its officers.

-Hire the best people, then hold ourselves accountable by taking every complaint seriously.

-Engage our residents and businesses to make them part of the solution.

-Invest heavily in investigations so we’re producing so much evidence the state’s attorney has no choice but to prosecute criminals.

-Utilize modern technology like license plate readers throughout the municipality to catch criminals.

-Create partnerships like how we worked with Orland Square to implement a youth supervision policy.

-Require businesses to cooperate with police in investigations as part of their business licensing.

-Take advantage of federal programs to hire mental health professionals so they can handle mental health calls and our officers can focus on criminal matters.

-Make it clear to potential criminals if they commit a crime in our jurisdiction, they will be caught and face consequences for their crimes.

Keith Pekau is a local leader, decorated veteran, and small businessman leading the effort to keep local communities safe by putting people over politics.

About Mayor Keith Pekau: Keith Pekau was elected Mayor of Orland Park in April 2017 in his first run for elected office. During his tenure, Keith proactively worked to reduce crime in Orland Park, leading to the lowest village crime rate in over a quarter-century. He works closely with regional municipal and business partners, co-founded the Chicago Southland Interstate Alliance, an I-80 corridor development group, and is on the board of the I-80 Coalition. Keith is a decorated combat veteran and Air Force Instructor Weapons System Officer. Born and raised in Orland Park, he has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Arizona State University and an M.B.A. from Duke University, as a Fuqua Scholar.