Visitation, Funeral Set for Longtime Elgin Police Officer Who Died Suddenly at Local Hospital

SOUTH ELGIN, IL - Funeral services have been set for a longtime Elgin Police Department officer who died suddenly at a local hospital on Sunday at the age of 59. A visitation for Officer Stevenson Jones will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday at Laird Funeral Home, 310 S. State Street in Elgin. A funeral will be held on Saturday at New Mount Pilgrim M.B. Church, 4301 W. Washington in Chicago, starting at 11 a.m.

A visitation will precede the funeral from 10 to 11 a.m. at the church on Saturday, according to information posted on the Elgin Police Department's Facebook page. Burial will follow at Oak Ridge/Glen Oak Cemetery in Hillside.

Elgin Police Chief Jeffrey Swoboda, in a statement posted on the police department's Facebook page Saturday, said Officer Jones worked for 28 years to make Elgin a better place.

"We are shocked and deeply saddened as we know the community is as well. Steve worked for 28 years making Elgin a better place," he said. "We miss him already."

Jones was in his second year as a school resource officer at Kimball Middle School in Elgin and had become very popular among students and staff, District U46 spokeswoman Mary Fergus told the Elgin Courier-News. He became a mentor for students, Fergus said.

"Students are describing Steve as amazing, legendary, and some even said he was a father figure to them," Fergus told the newspaper.

His hard did not go unnoticed over the years, the Daily Herald reports.

Jones earned 16 letters of appreciation, a department commendation in 1995, and distinguished service awards in 2010 and 2015, Cmdr. Colin Fleury said. He worked patrol for many years and at one point was a member of the department's drug unit and the multijurisdictional North Central Narcotics Task Force.

More via the Daily Herald and the Elgin Courier-News

Photo via the Elgin Police Department Facebook page