Skokie, Illinois
Police Tactical Gear Storage
Custom Heavy-Duty Lockers Assist With Police Tactical Gear Storage
The village of Skokie, Illinois has a population of approximately 65,000 people—and certainly redefines what you might think of when you think of villages. Skokie is one of the Chicago area’s most highly populated suburbs, and is growing quickly. The accessibility to the city is punctuated by the fact that Skokie’s main streets are largely continuation of the Chicago street grid, and is served by the Chicago Transit Authority’s Yellow Line.
This proximity to the city, combined with the village’s fast growth, has ensured that the Skokie Police Department will always be on their toes—especially in the case of the department’s Tactical Intervention Unit (TIU).
The mission of the TIU is to rapidly respond with highly-trained personnel to incidents such as hostage situations and barricades subjects, executing high-risk warrants, and providing VIP protection. The TIU is focused on a high state of readiness and proficiency—team members, once they survive a rigorous selection process, must pass an annual fitness test, attend monthly trainings and preparedness exercises, and practice simulations.
Read The Full Story
Skokie’s police tactical gear storage solution was just one piece of the department’s storage puzzle. Read the full Skokie Police Department Case Study.
Read The Full Story
Skokie’s police tactical gear storage solution was just one piece of the department’s storage puzzle. Read the full Skokie Police Department Case Study.
Police Tactical Gear Storage
The team was certainly ready—but disorganized gear was creating a major challenge. The police tactical gear storage were low-profile lockers that simply weren’t meant to store a 130-lb. fully loaded tactical vest. Because of the weight restrictions on the lockers, those vests and other heavy equipment needed to be stored elsewhere in the department. When planning for a new building began in 2008, the Skokie Police Department knew that outfitting the TIU with a better storage solution would only contribute to its ongoing success—and get valuable officers out the door and to the residents of Skokie that needed assistance.
Bradford Systems, the local Spacesaver® distributor in the Chicago area, had an idea. Instead of uniform or personal storage lockers that wouldn’t be able to fit the bulky TIU equipment, Bradford worked with Spacesaver to produce 23 large cubbies, made out of heavy-duty four-post shelving. The modular design of the open cubbies allowed the gear to remain readily accessible and organized at all times, and heavy-duty garment hangers were installed in the largest part of the door-less lockers to hang the unit’s tactical vests.
Separate spaces for headgear, gear bags, and boots rounded out the police tactical gear storage solution. In addition, the lockers include electrical outlets so the unit’s members are able to power phones, tablets, radios, and other electronic devices.
Like a life depends on it—and it typically does—the officers involved in Skokie Police Department’s Tactical Intervention Unit must move quickly. Being ready, organized, and having easily accessible gear allows preparation to be more efficient and effective.
