Uniformed Good Guy Todd Carlson

Todd Carlson of Montgomery met his wife, Kim, online around 10 years ago, before it was the norm—or even acceptable. The Carlsons joke about how they used to take liberties with the truth when asked how they met, so they could avoid the word "online."

They've been married for seven years and can now easily answer the question, since it is now common for couples to meet online. 

Carlson, 36, now uses the Internet to find criminals. Just like online dating, it's an efficient way to make a match.

As an intelligence officer for Hanover Park Police Department, Carlson sifts through online data to keep tabs on crime and to track perpetrators. As part of his duties, he visits Chicago's fusion center, the Crime Prevention Information Center, at the Chicago Police headquarters twice monthly. The center allows for easy sharing of data, he says.

Carlson has a minor in computer science and has always been a techie. After graduating from Western Illinois University with a law enforcement degree, he took a job as a deputy sheriff for Dane County in Madison, Wisc. He then came back to Illinois and lived in Glendale Heights until he and Kim bought a house in Montgomery.

They've lived in the village for nine years, and are surprised at how much it has grown from when they first moved to the town that had little more than houses and farm fields. They love taking their two yellow labs out on the connecting trails.

When Carlson isn't working, he spends time assisting his nephew's Boy Scout troop in Sandwich—he helped it grow from three to 27 Scouts. Carlson, an Eagle Scout, was previously the Scout Master and now serves as a committee member. 

Until recently, Carlson, a 1994 graduate of West Aurora High School, also worked part-time as a security officer for the Fox Valley Park District for five years.

Carlson noted the major drop in crime since he started as a police officer. He said it will be interesting in the future to see what reasons are credited with the decline. Maybe technology is assisting in the low homicide and crime numbers. Maybe Carlson is helping in that goal. 

This year, Carlson's work helped the Hanover Park Police Department win an Excellence in Technology Award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police for innovation in information technology. 

To Carlson, the Internet is a valuable tool and it will keep growing in usefulness. 

"We haven't fused data bases together yet," he said. So Carlson is likely to stay busy on the net for years to come.