Mount Prospect cop reassigned from school duty
Defense of ‘thin blue line’ emblem causes unease
By Zach Harris
The Mount Prospect Police Department has reassigned a 15-year veteran officer from her position as the resource officer at Prospect High School after she defended the department’s uniform patch, which includes the “thin blue line” flag, at a village board meeting and on the TV show “Fox & Friends.”
Officer Lisa Schaps was reassigned at the request of Northwest Suburban High School District 214.
“As the school resource officer assigned to one of our schools has become a Police Department spokesperson on this issue, we did recommend the consideration of having a different officer assigned to this school in order for our focus to remain on our students and school-related issues,” the school district said in a statement.
The Mount Prospect Police Department, village of Mount Prospect officials and school district officials did not respond to multiple requests for additional comment.
Although the term “thin blue line” has been around for decades, the flag itself, which is the American flag in black and white with a horizontal blue line as one of the flag’s stripes, first appeared in 2014.
Defenders of the flag say it is a way for police officers to show solidarity and pay respect to those who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Opponents object to its use in official police uniforms because the flag has appeared in demonstrations among alt-right and white nationalist groups. Last year police officers in Niles stopped wearing masks with the “thin blue line” flag amid controversy.
“To (my family), this flag means honor and pride and love and kinship. It means the same thing to me,” Schaps said at the June 15 meeting. “The way now, that we have seen in the last year, that people of color have been treated by police officers, if you think that doesn’t enrage us and anger us, you are wrong because the men and women here in Mount Prospect do not treat our citizens that way.”
Schaps was one of two officers who spoke at the meeting to express support for the department’s incorporation of the flag.
Six Mount Prospect community members expressed concern over the patch. They said the flag has been co-opted by rightwing extremists and white nationalists; therefore using it in a department patch is divisive and fosters an environment in which people of color do not feel safe.
All of those who expressed concern over the symbolism of the patch prefaced their remarks by stating their appreciation for law enforcement and the work Mount Prospect police do.
“That the original purpose of the symbol was to honor fallen officers is not the point,” one woman said at the meeting. “Respecting the wishes of our Black and brown residents does not mean disrespecting the police. Instead it makes their stated goal ‘to protect and serve’ more robust.”
Schaps and fellow Mount Prospect police Officer Chris Berg the other officer who spoke in support of the patch, appeared on “Fox & Friends” to discuss their comments.
“I understand where they’re coming from,” Schaps said on Fox. “But those were never our intentions. We never saw this as hateful or oppressive.”
Schaps went back on “Fox & Friends” with Mount Prospect police Chief John Koziol to talk about the meeting in which Prospect Principal Greg Minter requested her reassignment.
“We sat down with him and he explained (that) he and the district had received complaints,” Koziol said on Fox. “I was giving him ideas on how to handle those calls ... it basically got to the point where he says, ‘We’re past all that. We want a new SRO (school resource officer).’ ”
Some in the Mount Prospect community took issue with the fact that at the village board meeting Schaps compared judging all members of the Police Department based “on the actions of a few bad officers or groups” to “judging somebody on the color of their skin, on their religion or on their sexual preferences.”
That comment “illustrated that she does not understand the students she is assigned to serve and protect,” the Mount Prospect
Citizens for Justice, a group of community members who favor a redesign of the patch, said in a statement. “Students need to feel seen, heard and valued, especially after this past year. All students, including minority students, have the right to feel safe in their school.
“Officer Schaps’ comments were her personal opinion, but in choosing to bring up the school she inappropriately put the school in the middle of a community debate. Therefore, her reassignment can be laid at the feet of poor leadership on the part of the MPPD and a sustained unwillingness to have a conversation with those who have expressed concern.”
The department reassigned Schaps to investigations, and she will continue in her role as the facilitator of the department’s peer jury program. Schaps confirmed that but declined to comment further.
“The Mount Prospect Police Department and their personnel have been, and continue to be, great partners, and we look forward to that partnership continuing into the future,” the district said in the statement.