Joliet FOP Fed Up With Chief Roechner, Letter Shows

JOLIET, IL —On Aug. 24, 2018, Joliet City Manager David Hales issued a press release announcing Al Roechner as the new chief of police. This week, a a certified letter from the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council informed Acting Joliet City Manager Steve Jones that Joliet's patrol officers' union is fed up with Roechner and his internal affairs practices.

The letter was written by Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Labor Council General Counsel Tamara Cummings and Joliet Police FOP Lodge President Mike DeVito "to express concerns we have with the current disciplinary process."

"The Chief of Police is the final decision maker and as such he must be fair, objective and unbiased. Yet certain recent occurrences have caused the members to question his objectivity," the letter reads. "Most troubling is the fact that he is inserting himself in the investigatory process. Thus, we are concerned that we are not getting a fair and unbiased decision at the end of what is supposed to be an impartial, thorough and objective process."

Their letter listed several instances where Joliet's FOP has perceived Roechner to be unfair or not objective concerning matters of officer discipline. Time and time again, Roechner continues to cause unnecessary delays regarding pending internal affairs cases for rank-and-file Joliet police officers, the authors say.

"In one instance, a disciplinary case has been pending since March of 2019," the letter states. "In another instance, a disciplinary case has been pending since February of 2019. (Internal Affairs) has informed the Union that their investigation of these matters have been finalized and the files have been sitting on the Chief's desk for quite some time now."

The Joliet FOP letter also advises Jones that "to compound the problem of investigations taking too long, the Chief has ordered subjects of investigations not to have any contact with other department members and/or city employees who in some cases are only peripherally related to the investigations. This hinders an officer's ability to conduct daily business both on and off duty."

Under the terms of the FOP contract, Joliet officers have the right to appeal a disciplinary measure to the city's police board, which is where Chief Roechner has been a no-show.

"In four cases officers have opted to proceed via the police board and in each case no charges have been filed," DeVito's letter states. "Two of the cases were termination cases and ultimately, the officers opted to resign. At the time of each officer's resignation, no charges had been filed."

Those two cases would have involved Roechner's attempts to fire Officer Lionel Allen and Officer Brian Nagra in January 2019 for unrelated reasons.

Allen, who had more than 30 years with the Joliet Police force, ultimately retired on his own terms last August. Nagra submitted his retirement notice last July. Nagra was later charged with five criminal counts of theft and official misconduct stemming from allegations that he had inflated his city payroll records in recent years.

In any event, DeVito's letter states, "there are two additional disciplinary matters where officers received suspensions. In each case, the officer elected to appeal to the Police Board in February of 2019. As with the termination cases, to date, the Chief has filed no charges with the police board which would allow these matters to be heard and resolved."

Among the other key issues noted in the letter to Jones: "During interrogations, the interrogators take breaks and confer with the chief and the entire command staff in the chief's office. Then, the interrogators return to the room and ask more questions. Obviously, this means the chief and his top brass are telling the interrogators what questions to ask and are giving opinions regarding the questions that were already asked and the answers already given. This is inappropriate. The chief is supposed to be unbiased when the investigative file reaches his desk for review. How can he be fair and unbiased when he has inserted himself into the investigative process?"

According to the FOP letter, Roechner continues to cause more strife within the Joliet Police Department based on his inability to complete internal affairs cases in a timely fashion.

"Investigations take an inordinate amount of time to complete. This not only leads to stress for the subject officers, it also has negative job consequences as being under investigation precludes you from being considered for certain positions," the document states.

At this stage, "the Patrol Union requests that you become involved in the disciplinary process to ensure not only fairness and objectivity in the process but also the APPEARANCE of fairness and objectivity in the process," Cummings and DeVito wrote Jones.

Jones only has two full months left as the interim city manager.

Come March, Jones wants to move into a role as an economic development consultant for the city and begin to collect his local government pension at the same time.

Roechner is now in his 29th year on Joliet's Police Department. He had already spent nine years in a command post when now-ousted city manager David Hales chose Roechner to replace retiring chief Brian Benton in late summer 2018.

"I am confident my almost three-decades of service and leadership to the City will provide a smooth transition for the residents and leaders of our community," Roechner said in a press release at the time.

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