Hurtling down Harlem Avenue at 75 mph — lights flashing, sirens wailing — responding to a report of shots fired, gives one a good idea of what a Berwyn cop’s night will be like.

As undercover Dodge Chargers, a Ford pickup and squad cars converged on the area, members of the West Suburban Enhanced Directed Gang Enforcement tactical team heard Thursday night, Sept. 26, that the alleged shooter may have dashed through Ridgeland Park, at 39th Street and Ridgeland Avenue.

Combing the park, children’s playground and surrounding woods with flashlights, officers in the regional gang and drug task force searched for anyone lurking about. The call of three shots being fired in that area came in around 8:30 p.m.

After searchers came up empty-handed, they headed off to track down a Berwyn man out on parole, wanted in connection with some residential burglaries in Berwyn. To get there, they drove by scores of gang members’ homes, or addresses that were the subject of numerous resident complaints of gang activity and drug dealing.

“Daily repeated contact,” said Berwyn Police Sgt. Jerry Conoboy as he drove through a Harlem Heights back alley in Stickney.

It’s almost a mantra.

And police say it is crucial to cracking down on gangs, drugs and a host of assorted and related crimes throughout the Cook County suburbs.

The tactical team includes officers from Berwyn, Lyons, Forest Park, North Riverside, Riverside, Stickney, Oak Park and the U.S. Marshal’s Great Lakes Task Force. Berwyn Police Chief William Kushner said that Chicago Police just have agreed to join the task force, as well.

Kushner’s brainchild, WEDGE formed in January 2007 after Kushner received approval to create the unit in October 2006. The gang tactical unit hit the streets in March 2007 after three months of training, Kushner said.

Six to 18 officers go on duty three days a week every two weeks. It provides additional patrols, Conoboy said, in smaller communities that may not have that many officers working a regular shift.

Conoboy, who serves as coordinator of the regional tactical unit, said it is through repeated contact with these officers, and tips from concerned residents, that their teams may push back against gang members and drug dealers and work to prevent their further spread throughout communities.

Conoboy said he urges residents to call their local police departments when they suspect such activities on their blocks or near their children’s schools. Those addresses then may be added to a list circulated at the start of WEDGE officers’ shifts, and they hit the streets with these locales topping those to check out. And repeatedly, the areas are checked out, sometimes multiple times each shift by the same undercover cars.

“Now, the neighbors out at that neighborhood watch meeting last night (Sept. 24, at the Berwyn Police Department) will see us,” Conoboy said, driving past an alleged gang member’s home on Harvey Avenue.

He and Lyons Police Officer David Deleshe stop on Elmwood Avenue, where a car is double parked in front of what they say is a known gang member’s house. It throws up a red flag.

When a man walks out of the house, he said he ran inside to grab his shirt and didn’t want to park since he only would be inside a minute. Deleshe searched the man’s car after the man gave the OK, but found nothing illegal. Conoboy found a small pocket-style knife, but it is not violating any laws or local ordinances.

“Because of your brother’s gang involvement and what goes on over here, when I see a car double parked (I pull over), Conoboy told the man. “I’m gonna give you a warning today. Make sure you let (brother) know we’re out here.”

Then there’s roaming Cicero Avenue looking for prostitutes.

“Daily repeated contact,” Conoboy said again. “With some of these guys, if you don’t, they start getting comfortable and start doing drug dealing and then drive-bys. You can’t get them to move. The best you can hope for is to get them to modify behavior. So they do nothing to disrupt the neighborhood. They’ll still live in Berwyn, and be going to other towns and whooping it up.”

WEDGE officers received word that someone called in a tip about gang members amassing at a garage on Clarence Avenue.

They find one man and a truck in the back of the long, narrow garage, and women begin streaming out of the house, yelling and cursing, into the adjoining back yard. Amid shouts of “Take a picture of your (expletive),” “We’re gonna sue your (expletive)” and “You’re the real (expletive) killers,” the team finds a hunk of wooden board covered in the words “Latin Counts” and hand-drawn symbols. Latin Counts is a street gang that operates in Berwyn, Chicago, and many surrounding communities.

“They called the police and their lawyers on us,” Deleshe said.

Conoboy said they hide their cars in this garage, and call them “rammers.”

“I’m trying to get my life together. I think they’re just harassing,” Berwyn resident Jose Dominguez, 23, told the Suburban Life. “They’re doing their jobs at the same time. I’m trying to get my life straight. If they write me down I’m still an active gang member.”

When officers in the WEDGE task force stop him or question him, he said it doesn’t help him move past his life in a gang. He has a 3-year-old daughter and another on the way, and said he isn’t gang-banging anymore.

Dominguez is not arrested nor ticketed. He is told to throw out the board, and he placed it next to the garbage can outside.

There isn’t enough parking in Berwyn, especially near his home on Oak Park Avenue, so he was parking his car in a friend’s garage on Clarence Avenue, he said.

“She just lets me park the car here. I don’t live here,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said the wooden board wasn’t his.

“The board was on the floor and I was cleaning,” he told the Life.

Later that day, some of the women traveled to the Berwyn Police Department to lodge complaints about the dozen tactical team members’ stop at their house. Conoboy said they complained of being harassed.

“So that’s the reception we get,” Conoboy said at the garage after sliding back in the car. “I’d say 90 percent of most women aren’t like that. And the one guy who could say something doesn’t because he knows.”

After a traffic stop finds a driver with expired license plates, Riverside Police Officer John Cairo raced along major thoroughfares and side streets to a call in to Forest Park Thursday night about a potential drug deal in progress in an area reportedly known for such activity.

“You know, I’m starting to think $1.2 (million) is too little in life insurance,” Deleshe told Cairo as he held onto the passenger-side door handle.

Minutes later, driving surreptitiously passed the house, a knot of men were spotted out front. Cairo said not to jump out of the truck until officers make sure it is safe.

“I’d duck if I were you, ‘cause they’re either gonna run or shoot,” Cairo quickly warned before rolling up outside of a Forest Park residence where a handful of men and teens were gathered.

Cairo and Deleshe quickly were joined by two other task force cars, and two squads from Forest Park Police. WEDGE members stop four men and begin conducting background checks on them as Forest Park police pull up. The tactical team then dash off for the report of shots fired near Ridgeland Park.

The night also nets a Berwyn man, wanted for questioning in some residential burglaries in town. Officers follow he and his girlfriend before surrounding the Ford Taurus on a nearly vacant street. With about a half-dozen tactical team members, guns drawn, surrounding the car, he shoves his hands out of his window before laying on the ground, spread-eagle to be handcuffed.

“It’s a change of pace,” Cairo said during a lull. “You get out of patrol for awhile. You look at things differently. You’re dealing with a higher-profile crime: Drugs, gangs.”

Cairo and Deleshe said one of the major accomplishments of the unit is it allows officers through communities in WEDGE to share information, and help one another track down suspects, vehicles seen near crime scenes, and look for stolen property reported out of partner communities.

“Now I’m putting names and faces together,” Deleshe said.

When he stops someone in Lyons on his regular shift, he may have gained experience with the person previously while working with WEDGE in another community, he said.

“You could be a traffic cop for 20 years and not see this stuff,” Deleshe said.