Lake Bluff Police Chief Announces Plans To Retire

LAKE BLUFF, IL — The Lake Bluff police chief plans to step down next year after spending nearly three decades with the village. Chief David Belmonte said he is retiring March 1 to take a job in the private sector.

“I could not have asked for a better community to serve, a better place to raise my family, or a better team of dedicated men and women to serve alongside,” Belmonte said in a release announcing his retirement. “My time in Lake Bluff has been an unbelievable honor and privilege that I will keep close to my heart.”

The Libertyville native began his law enforcement career as a community service officer and dispatcher with Vernon Hills police before joining the Lake Bluff Police Department in September 1989.

Belmonte was promoted to sergeant in 1995, the same year he received the department's lifesaving award for rescuing an employee of Union Pacific who had been struck by a train, according to the village.

He was promoted to deputy chief in 2007 and appointed chief of police in March 2014, succeeding William Gallagher to become the ninth chief in village history.

When Belmonte led the village's efforts to receive its first successful review from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies in 1999, the department was the smallest accredited agency in the state of Illinois. As of 2018, the Lake Bluff Police Department had 14 officers and two records clerks.

Belmonte's $150,000-a-year salary makes him the village's second highest paid employee after Village Administrator Drew Irvin, who has annual compensation of nearly $251,000.

The outgoing chief told the Lake Forester he has accepted a position with a company in Texas that he declined to name. He said the firm works on police department accreditation, and he welcomed the opportunity to "explore something in the private sector" after spending 31 years working for local governments.

Belmonte's service to the village is "singular and distinguished," Village President Kathy O'Hara said in a release.

"Chief Belmonte has worked tirelessly to make our community a safe and secure place and to make our police department a model of courtesy and professionalism," O'Hara said.

The village will begin a search process to identify a new police chief in early 2019.