Lake County Gazette

The village of Libertyville celebrates its police department and one officer in particular.

“It is our absolute pleasure this evening to recognize one of our police officers who's being promoted,” Mayor Donna Johnson said during the meeting. “And it is also a great pleasure for me to see them come in dress uniform this evening. It's wonderful to see that. It always looks so nice to see that the Brotherhood is supporting each other. I love the fact that his family is present in here and his mother is present as well. And I'm sure this is a very, very proud moment for her as well as those promotion of sergeant is always a welcome opportunity, not only for the police officer, but his family that's always supported him through that time.”

The council uploaded a livestream of its public meeting to the village’s website.

At their March 28th board meeting, members of the Libertyville village board and their police department gathered together to celebrate the promotion of one of their village officers to the rank of Sergeant. Brandon Bernabei was promoted with his wife and children Huntley, Paisley, and Hayden, and his fellow officers in attendance for the swearing of his oath. The Libertyville police department has 48 total employees, both sworn and not sworn members.”

The council also discussed an ordinance vacating a portion of an unimproved alley at 641 East Sunnyside Avenue.

Bernabei graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in history. He started with the Libertyville police department in 2011 after serving as a police officer in Morton Grove. From 2014 to 2020 he was assigned as a special agent on the Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group and greatly enjoyed the tactical assignment. Bernabei was responsible for narcotics, gun, and gang enforcement throughout all of Lake County and was promoted to group supervisor of the MEG unit in 2016. He is also a firearms instructor and field training officer. Bernabei took his oath and had his wife pin his badge on him before calling up his kids and mother to take group photos. The mayor also called up everyone who had come to the meeting to support him to be able to take one large group photo to commemorate the event.

The council will meet again at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the Village Hall at 118 West Cook Avenue.

The mayor took the opportunity to thank all friends and families of their officers for supporting them in their job and to thank the entire police department for their diligence in serving and protecting the community and making improvements to their force and the relationships they have with the community. Mayor Johnson was proud of what their first responders had accomplished and announced that they had been adding fitness equipment pieces for their first responders and are looking to do more to support both police and fire in the future.