Darien Police Chief Talks About Firing Powers

DARIEN, IL — Darien Police Chief Greg Thomas said Monday he has enough power to properly discipline officers when they violate policies. He was responding to a question from Alderman Eric Gustafson, who noted many blame police union contracts for making it tougher to fire bad officers.

Thomas, who was Aurora's police chief for eight years before coming to Darien in late 2015, said he fired about 10 employees when he was at the Aurora department's helm.

"Here at Darien, that hasn't come up. It's come close a couple of times. We had a resignation in lieu of termination," the chief said.

He said he has not experienced a situation where the law prevented him from firing someone who needed to go.

Thomas also said he has heard people complain that Miranda rights prevent officers from getting confessions from suspects. He said he disagreed with their arguments.