Officers promoted

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The Crown Point Police Department promoted five officers, two Sergeant ranks and three Corporal ranks. The officers are Sergeant Len Homola and Todd Carey and Corporal Mile Knezevic, Lloyd Eldridge, and Larry Scott. | Photo Provided~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 15, 2012 10:04AM

CROWN POINT — Five Crown Point police officers were promoted at the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting on Feb. 8 at the request of Chief Pete Land. According to Land the promotions came as the result of the retirement of ranking officers, and will fill supervisory roles within the department.

Moving up to the ranks to sergeant are 37-year veteran Len Homola, who is the operations commander and head of the Detective Bureau, and Todd Carey, a 15-year veteran of the department who is also a patrol shift supervisor.

Three police officers were moved up to Corporal. They are: Mile Knezevic, a 10-year veteran officer who is in the Patrol Division; Lloyd Eldridge, with nine years of service to the department and is a K-9 officer also in the Patrol Division; and Detective Larry Scott, also with nine years of service.

Both the city Police and Fire departments have a process established to eliminate any favoritism or politics from the promotion process. The Institute for Public Safety Personnel handles all the promotion testing and ranking for the police department.

Each officer’s score was based on a number of set categories, including an oral interview before a board comprised of members from outside of the city department, seniority, attendance, discipline, education and U.S. military service.

Sergeant Homola said, “It was a good process we had to go through. We had several scenarios we had to go through and what would we do.”

Homola has 11 years of service in the military. He is a former Marine. He was first discharged in 1973 and joined the Crown Point Police Department. In 1987 he joined the reserves and was called up in 1988 for temporary active duty for 180 days.

“When I got out the city wouldn’t let me back in the force, so I ended up serving four more years in active duty,” Homola said.

He was then back on the city police force starting in 1992. He worked patrol, and then in January 1995 was assigned to the detective bureau where he served until 2002 when he was sent back to patrol. He was back as a detective in 2008.

“I have been an acting sergeant and a shift supervisor in the past, he added. He is very happy to finally have been made a sergeant.

At this point in time sergeant is the highest rank held by any police officer in the city. The positions of chief, assistant chief, operations commander and patrol shift supervisor are paid an additional amount. Anyone holding those positions can be reassigned at any time.

There are currently no lieutenants or captains, with accompanying pay rate, on the police force.