By Dave Dahl/Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – The men and women in blue want the men and women at the Capitol to get with it – get a budget together.

In an open letter, Fraternal Order of Police Illinois president Chris Southwood said, “Law enforcement officers know about hostage situations, where people try to get their way by threatening innocent lives. We know that the best and safest way to resolve a hostage situation is through negotiation. What we are seeing now with the state budget is a hostage situation. Unfortunately we aren’t seeing a willingness to negotiate by the person who is holding that budget hostage, Governor Bruce Rauner.”

Harsh?

“One of the things that I hear,” Southwood said later in an interview, “is, why are we not blaming the (House) speaker, or the president of the Senate. A very small amount of our membership votes for those folks, live in their legislative districts. But our entire membership has the opportunity to vote for the governor.”

Southwood, whose tipping point was seeing money for training dry up, says it’s time for the governor to forget about his business-minded “Turnaround Agenda” for now – for safety’s sake.