Dundee-area cops ready for Halloween

Halloween on Friday? Don't worry about it, say police in Dundee Township and Gilberts.

The pre-weekend fright day will not cause trick-or-treaters to break curfews or have them clash with older revelers driving to parties at taverns.

One group should be off the streets long before the other takes to the roads in their cars.

Police in East and West Dundee won't be adding patrols to the streets that night.

And in Gilberts, the chief hopes his officers only have to deal with a handful of teenage pranksters who have to be told to go home.

"Way back when we used to see more vandalism on Halloween," said East Dundee Police Chief Terry Mee. "But we haven't seen that for years."

His department will receive an occasional call from a bothered homeowner, but he doesn't expect it to be serious. Trick-or-treaters in East Dundee behave themselves. And if they go past the allowed hours of 3-7 p.m., the same as in West Dundee, they will be told their fun is over.

In Gilberts, trick or treating hours are from 4-8 p.m.

"I don't think we ever received many calls from people complaining about kids knocking on their doors when they aren't supposed to," Mee said. "When people run out of candy or it's later than our hours, they just turn out their lights and don't answer the door.

And that doesn't make them fair game for tricks.

Still, with Halloween being on Friday, there is a better chance for accidents. Mee and his colleagues are reminding trick-or-treaters, their parents and motorists to look out for each other. Children should dress in light colored costumes when they are walking from house to house.

And motorists shouldn't be wearing masks when they are driving. They will cut down on their field of vision.

Every officers who has patrolled the roads on Halloween or any other night has stories of stopping drivers dressed in costumes, said Mike Joswick, Gilberts police chief,

It doesn't make their jobs safer or easier. But sometimes makes it alarming.

"Years ago, one of my guys stopped someone dressed as a vampire. It was an authentic costume," Joswick said. "He even went to the trouble and expense of having his dentist put in fangs as permanent implants."

Like Mee, the Gilberts chief doesn't expect big trouble on this Friday Halloween. Halloween falling on a Friday doesn't happen often - only every seven years. But he's not willing to predict a quiet night for his department.

"This will be our first Halloween on a Friday with 6,000 residents. We haven't dealt with all these things before," he said.