Oak Park’s village government announced Friday the imminent retirement of Police Chief LaDon Reynolds. After 28 years with the force, his final day will be April 15. His decision to retire, according to a March 25 village news release, was rooted in a desire to spend more time with his family.
News of Reynolds’ impending departure arrives as his nomination to become the U.S. Marshal for northern Illinois remains tangled in party politics in Washington D.C. Nominated by Illinois’ two Democratic senators, a vote on the nomination has been put on hold, Wednesday Journal recently reported, in a procedural move by Sen. Tom Cotton (R- Ark).
The village board has launched an ongoing assessment of the police department by an outside consultant. Uncertainty over Reynold’s continued role in the department has been discussed as a challenge to the review effort.
The retirement announcement also comes just days after Kevin Jackson arrived as Oak Park’s new village manager. In the statement released by the village, Jackson praised Reynolds and stated he had been “really looking forward to getting to know [Reynolds] better.” Jackson expects the village will conduct a nation-wide search to find Reynolds’ replacement, according to the release.
For his part, Reynolds was quoted in the release saying, “Oak Park is a great place to be a police officer. The community is engaged and supportive and a community policing model has always guided my sense of service here. The village board has made sure the department has the resources needed to keep the community safe. But it is time for me to move on and let a new generation of law enforcement professionals take the lead.”
The news release referenced Reynolds’ nomination but did not directly state if he plans to accept the position should his nomination go through. The release said his retirement from the Oak Park Police Department is “not likely to be the end of Chief Reynolds’ law enforcement career.” Reynolds himself has been consistently tight-lipped regarding his nomination, despite numerous requests for information from Wednesday Journal.
Reynolds joined the Oak Park police force in 1994 as a patrol officer, rising through the ranks to become a detective, sergeant and commander. He was made deputy chief in 2017 then stepped in as interim police chief in April 2018. Reynolds officially became chief in 2019.
He expressed gratitude in the news release, stating, “I also want personally thank Village President Vicki Scaman and members of the village board, both past and present, for their support during my long career in Oak Park. And, of course, a special thanks goes out to the men and women of the Oak Park Police Department, many of whom I have known for many years. Without their support and commitment to service I could never have achieved so much in my career here.”