Evanston Police Chief Announces Retirement

EVANSTON, IL — Chief Richard Eddington Monday announced his retirement from the Evanston Police Department, effective December 2018. Eddington has been police chief in Evanston since 2007, and at the end of this month he will mark completion of 44 years of police service, according to city officials.

“Chief Eddington has served the City of Evanston with honor and distinction for more than 11 years and the greater Chicagoland area for more than 40 years,” said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz in a release ahead of Eddington's announcement. “Evanston is a safer community thanks to his outstanding leadership.”

Eddington's first job as a cop was in 1974 in Roselle. After 17 years, he became chief and spent a decade in charge of the department before he was hired to become external chief of police for Mount Prospect in 2001 to resolve a federal racial profiling investigation, which eventually led to a 2010 memorandum of understanding between the village and the Department of Justice.

During Eddington’s 11-year tenure with the Evanston Police Department, Part 1 crimes – incidents of murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, theft, stolen cars and arson – have decreased by 39 percent, from 3,107 in 2007 to 1,900 in 2017, city officials said. (According to FBI data, reported Part 1 crimes in Chicago declined by nearly 70 percent during the same 10-year period.)

Eddington credited an increase in "intelligence-led policing" and refocused "neighborhood enforcement team" operations with the reduction in major crimes, according to a release. The city said police have incorporated more data gathered by an intelligence officer and crime analyst into weekly deployment meetings in order to increase resources to suppress crime in targeted "hot spots."

Instead of conducting street-level enforcement, Eddington has assigned the enforcement team, dubbed "NET", to focus on longer term investigations working with federal agencies, according to the release. Police have been able to carry out in-depth investigations of higher level targets eligible for federal prosecution. The team now pursues those dealing drugs rather than possessing them and made prosecuting gun crimes a priority.

Other accomplishments of Eddington's 11 years in charge of Evanston police include re-instituted foot patrols, de-escalation training for all officers, the implementation of body-worn cameras among certain officers in the field, re-establishing the EPD Explorers program and the creation of the Officer and Gentleman Academy, a youth mentoring program, according to the city.

Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington Retirement Announcement Press Conference: