Last July, Champaign police officers responded to South Second Street on a report that a man had made suicidal threats. The information was confirmed and he was transported for an involuntary evaluation at Provena. Officers seized his legally-owned Glock .40 caliber pistol. Since no action was taken on his Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) card, the Champaign Police Department had no legal grounds to deny him his firearm and it was released back to him.
This month, second shift patrol responded to this same man’s place of employment, on a report that he was making suicidal threats. The information was once again confirmed and he was again transported for an evaluation. The same Glock was seized for safekeeping. Because of the amount of time that passed between the two calls for service, and the fact that they occurred on different districts and different shifts, no officers noticed that he had a prior history of suicidal threats. But, Laurie Phillips recognized his name and recognized the seized weapon. Laurie brought this to a detective’s attention, which then contacted ISP about his FOID and put a hold on the weapon to ensure that he could not get it back. This man is obviously a danger to himself and he would have continued to “slip between the cracks” had Laurie not intervened.