Patrolman's Narcotics Arrest Prompts Scrutiny

EAST PEORIA - Days after one of his longtime patrol officers was arrested for drug possession, an angry East Peoria police Chief Ed Papis said Tuesday he wants his officers to undergo mandatory random drug testing. 

"In this case here, we will take measures long overdue in correcting situations and initiate protocols to make sure it never happens again," said

Papis, who supports drug testing for his 37-member Police Department. 

"For the most part, it's a sense of disappointment and betrayal to the badge," Papis said.  "We uphold the badge to the highest degree, and anyone with the gall to diminish it it is saddening.  I'm quite angry."

But Papis said Beeney's behavior was the exception, rather than common practice, among East Peoria's police force. 

"It's by no stretch of the imagination reflective of the impeccable service the men and women of the East Peoria Police Department perform everyday," Papis said. 

His comments came one day after Ron Beeney, 36, and Julie Lynn Harris, 28, were charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. 

Beeney and Harris were arrested Friday after police found drugs, including 28.2 grams of cocaine, 8.2 grams of marijuana and methamphetamine, at their residence in the 100 block of Ridge Lane, Tazewell County court records show.  Police also reportedly found the drug ecstasy and several containers of illegal steroids.  The duo was released from jail Sunday on $50,000 bond each. 

Beeney, an 11-year member of the Police Department, resigned shortly after the Multi-County Narcotics Enforcement Group raided the home about 10:30 a.m.  Friday. 

Beeney had been assigned to second-shift patrol.  Harris, a member of the department's auxiliary force, which provides traffic and crowd control among other things, was terminated Friday. 

The drug discovery prompted Papis to say the department needs a random drug testing policy, despite never having any similar procedure before. 

Of the largest police departments in the Tri-County Area, only Peoria and Peoria County conduct mandatory random drug tests. 

In Tazewell County, drug tests are administered only in instances when "a person is looking goofy" or if there is a crash involving a department vehicle, Chief Deputy Tom Siron said. 

Pekin police and the Woodford County Sheriff's Department do not have a drug test policy. 

In Peoria County, Sheriff Mike McCoy said over the course of one year, about half the department's deputies and corrections officers are tested at Methodist Medical Center, which selects who will be tested. 

"It's totally random," McCoy said of the policy that has been agreed upon by the county and its police union for the past six or seven years. 

In almost all departments, a drug testing policy is not implemented without consent from the police union. 

"Drug testing in and of itself is more than just ( drug tests )," Papis said.  "You just don't do it overnight."

An East Peoria police union representative could not be reached for comment Tuesday.