State law enforcement agency blankets downtown with security

21-May-12 – (Above) Police officers guard the State Street Bridge on Monday afternoon, part of an unprecedented police presence in downtown Chicago. Officers in dark uniforms are with the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System, a mobile field force of police officers designed, according to the ILEAS website, “to provide rapid, organized, and disciplined response to civil disorder, crowd control, or other tactical situations.”

The Chicago Police Department started looking in February at ILEAS as a possible security supplement for the NATO summit that ended today. They did not want to ask suburban Chicago police departments for assistance as it could leave those suburbs unguarded. ILEAS and CPD have repeatedly declined to offer any estimate of the number of officers patrolling Chicago, but since Saturday it has seemed that at least a few officers are assigned to every block in or near the Loop.

(Above) Five Chicago police officers near the intersection of State and Lake Streets. (Below) ILEAS officers come from all over Illinois. These two officers on the plaza level of Marina City are from the Rockford area. (Photos by Steven Dahlman. Click on images to view larger versions.)

(Below) This is what it looked like from Marina City on Monday evening after the NATO summit concluded in Chicago. Anita Lambert captured this image at about 8 p.m. from the west tower. It shows about 35 police officers blocking the south end of the Dearborn Street Bridge. Behind them are two busses, one of which is parked diagonally across the bridge.