By Dan P. Blake and Robert Mitchum
Chicago Tribune reporters
CICERO, Ill. — A trailblazing and high-ranking Cicero police commander was arrested Sunday on Chicago’s South Side on a misdemeanor drug charge, authorities said.
Wesley Scott, who was profiled in a 1988 Time magazine article on racism in some of Chicago’s near west suburbs, rose from being Cicero’s first black police officer two decades ago to his appointment in June 2005 as the town’s first African-American patrol police commander.
Cicero town spokesman Dan Proft said Scott, a 21-year veteran, was taken into custody by Chicago police officers. He said he believed Scott, 47, was off-duty at the time.
Chicago police confirmed the arrest, saying that Scott was pulled over after running a stop sign shortly after 9 p.m. at 67th Street and Ashland Avenue in the Englewood neighborhood. He was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and released on his own recognizance.
On Monday morning, Proft could not say whether Scott would be reprimanded, adding that Cicero police plan to talk with him today to hear his side of the story.
Scott was appointed patrol commander by Cicero Town President Larry Dominick, who worked alongside him in the Police Department for years, Proft said.
“He’s a very good police officer,” he said. “They served together and had a good relationship and everyone I know has a good relationship with Wesley.”
“It’s widely out of character [for Scott] to be associated with any incident like this,” Proft said.
Scott, a native of Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood, has said that when he first came to work as a Cicero police officer he faced hostility and racial slurs from some town residents and even from some of his fellow officers in the Police Department, adding that, at times, he feared for his family’s lives.
In a recent Tribune article about his promotion to commander, Scott said now when he faces hostility on-duty he has a different reaction.
“I never immediately assume it’s because of race. … I just try to be accountable for my actions, and I treat people how I would like my brother, sister, mom or dad to be treated.”
A person who answered the telephone at Scott’s residence Monday morning said he had no comment.
Copyright 2008 The Chicago Tribune