Only a few years after Hillsboro officials considered dissolving the city’s police force, the Hillsboro Police Department is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and its chief says the department is in better shape than it has been in years.
The Hillsboro Police Department was established in 1973.
In recognition of its 50th anniversary this year, Hillsboro officers are wearing special badges that say, “50 YEARS OF SERVICE: 1973-2023.”
However, Hillsboro Police Chief Steve Meinberg said law enforcement in the city actually goes back much further.
“Hillsboro has been here since 1839 but had an elected marshal system until 1973 when they approved forming a new police department,” he said.
Meinberg said the department currently has 12 officers and is looking to fill one more officer job.
“We have some applications from people still in the (police) academy,” he said.
The department also has a support staff employee, Meinberg said.
He said the department has seen lots of improvements since the Board of Aldermen considered eliminating it in 2019.
“I think we’re better off than what we had and are more stable than what we were,” Meinberg said. “The staff here is a professional staff and people can be confident in our service.
“We have more equipment, better equipment, than ever before. We have updated policies and have implemented a lot of systems that make the agency run efficiently. They make it easier for the officers to get things done.”
Capt. Darrick Curtis said the changes have made a big difference.
“I think at this point we have come up to par,” Curtis said. “Now, we can focus on going beyond that. I would say our officers are better trained and better equipped than they ever were before.”
Meinberg said Hillsboro’s crime statistics show it’s a safe community.
“We have low major crime,” he said. “We only had three burglaries last year and only seven the year before. The year before that there were 11. We had no homicides last year (or in 2021). There were no reported rapes in 2022 and there was one in 2021.
“We had 14 felony thefts in 2022 and nine in 2021 and 10 misdemeanor thefts in 2022 and 12 in 2021. There were three reported auto thefts in 2022 and 18 in 2021.”
Meinberg said police believe two people were responsible for the large number of auto thefts in 2021 in Hillsboro and elsewhere around the county.
Meinberg became the chief in January 2019 after a dark period in the department’s history when the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office was tasked with investigating the department amid allegations of thefts and other problems. The Sheriff’s Office also took over command of the department under a short-term agreement with the Board of Alderpersons.
According to the Sheriff’s Office investigation, the Hillsboro Police Department had not been storing evidence properly or providing officers with proper training, among other problems.
Curtis and Meinberg said the Board of Aldermen addressed some of those problems by completing a $170,000 renovation project in March 2020 at the Hillsboro Police Station, which is housed in the basement at Hillsboro City Hall.
“We’ve now got a system to transfer and maintain evidence properly,” Curtis said. “The security of the evidence has been taken care of. We’re beyond standards at this point.”
The Hillsboro Police Station has no holding cells and instead takes the people who are arrested to the Jefferson County Jail, which is a short distance away.
Meinberg said the department has greatly improved annual officer training over the past few years.
He gives credit for the department’s improvements to his officers.
“None of this works because of me,” Meinberg said. “The officers are here because they believe (in the department).
“We’re doing a lot and still improving.”
Meinberg came to the Hillsboro Police after retiring from the Sheriff’s Office, where he had served as second-in-command as the undersheriff. His first title with the Hillsboro Police Department was police administrator, and initially he intended to only stay a few months to help the department get back in good standing.
He said he has stuck around because of the positive way the department and city residents have responded to the recent changes.
“The people in this community and the city administration have been so supportive to the department and me, I find it hard to leave,” Meinberg said. “But, that day is coming. I just want to make sure when I leave it’s better than when I came.”
Meinberg said the department may hold some sort of public event in recognition of the department’s 50th anniversary, such as an open house at the station, but nothing has been determined.
In the meantime, a 1976 Hillsboro Police badge and a 2023 50th anniversary commemorative badge are on display in a case at the Police Department.
“We don’t have an original 1973 badge,” Meinberg said. “If anybody has an original 1973 badge, we’d like to know.”
The Hillsboro Police Department’s first chief was the late James Madonna, who started the job on June 1, 1973, said his daughter, Debby Madonna-Sullivan, 54, of Washington, Mo.
“That’s what we moved to Hillsboro for in 1973, for him to be the police chief. We lived in St. Charles and moved to Hillsboro,” she said. “He was very proud of being the first Hillsboro Police chief. It was his second-proudest thing to being in the military.”
She said her father was a retired Army chief warrant officer second class and served in the military police and was a drill sergeant.
Madonna-Sullivan said her father earned a Purple Heart while serving in the Korean conflict and received numerous other military honors.
“He was a military man and when he retired, he was a pastor with a (Baptist) church in St. Charles.”
He died in 2005.