Big-City Law Enforcement Officers Find New Challenges as Small-Town Chiefs

The wooded bedroom community of Lakemoor, Ill., an hour from Chicago, is no stranger to hunters. But Bill Kushner, a former Chicago police officer now about a year into his role as police chief here, wasn't thinking of hunting season when he first heard gunshots ring out in town.

"Hey, I was a city cop, all right? I hear gunfire, and the first thing I do is draw my weapon, I start looking for cover and where the threat's coming from," he says. "The first time it happened up here, guys are looking at me like, 'What's the matter with you? They're just hunting across the lake.'"

The experience was a reality check for a man who spent 29 years rising through the Chicago Police Department ranks and who is one of numerous career metropolitan police officers who move on to run much smaller departments each year.

"It's a paradigm shift, let me put it that way," Kushner says.

Kim Kohlhepp, who heads up executive searches for the Alexandria, Va.-based International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), says it has become common to have officers from large agencies apply to be the chief at smaller departments.

Many who make the change are young enough to consider a second career by their late 40s or early 50s, when they become eligible for retirement benefits, Kohlhepp says. It's also about career goals, he said.

"A lot of people aspire to be a chief," he says. "Not every talented person in a big department will have the opportunity to serve as chief."

Don't confuse a small-town job with retirement, Kohlhepp says. "The small agencies are not looking for somebody to retire," he says. "They're looking for a police chief."

On Maryland's Eastern Shore, Chief Kelvin Sewell took over the Pocomoke City Police Department on Dec. 1 after a 22-year career with the Baltimore City Police.

Running his own department has "been a dream of mine," he says. In tiny Pocomoke City, "people are more polite" he says. "They wave to you. You wave to somebody in Baltimore City, you might get shot."

Pocomoke City Manager Russell Blake says the main advantage of recruiting an experienced big-city officer is the wealth of experience he brings, as well as "a fresh set of eyes, looking at the community." Blake knew that luring a police professional with Sewell's rsum meant coming up with the money to compensate him for his experience.

"If we wanted to attract somebody with those credentials, we would want to reward them appropriately, so that's what we've done," he says.

Sgt. Brian Craven, a 16-year veteran of the Pocomoke City Police, says his new chief has already reached out to partner with other local law enforcement agencies and has instituted a meeting every two weeks to review all ongoing cases. "That's really helped," Craven says.

Michael Finegan, a member of the IACP Psychological Services Section and lead psychologist for the Maryland State Police, says that if there's any downside to a big-city police officer taking over a smaller agency, it can stem from perhaps being frustrated with the lack of resources. They also are more likely to have to take on the same mundane tasks they handled as big-city rookies, he says.

On the bright side, Finegan says, a small-town chief doesn't have layers of bureaucracy to deal with. "They can leave a lasting legacy for all the things they wanted to implement but were prevented by all the gatekeepers in large-department organizations," he says.

In Lakemoor, Chief Kushner arrived 13 months ago to the village of about 6,000. He stepped up training for basic procedures and sent his officers on ride-alongs with Chicago cops to get an idea of their bustling shift work. He purchased the department new weapons through military surplus. He has also been able to secure a new police station in an office park to replace the dilapidated double-wide trailer that has served as the department's headquarters for its eight full-time officers.

"Barney Fife himself would not be in this (old) building," Kushner says.

In a small police department, "everybody does everything," says Chief Kathleen Sheehan of the 26-officer department in Port Hueneme, Calif., a town of about 24,000. A 25-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, she says she likes the personal touch that comes with it.

"You get to know people," says Sheehan, 52. "When you make an arrest, you know that you're keeping this bad guy from victimizing the people in your town."

Former Tallahassee police chief Walter McNeil, 56, who now helms the 24-officer Quincy, Fla., Police Department, says he loves his job policing the town of about 8,000, even though his "somewhat daunting" budget is about a tenth of what he had in Tallahassee. "In Tallahassee, if I had 10 people off sick, no big deal," he says. "Here, it's a catastrophe."

Shane also reports for The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md.

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