ALTON - Jody A. O'Guinn, who rose through the ranks to become No. 2 at the Alton Police Department, was named Thursday to govern one of the largest forces in Southern Illinois.
O'Guinn, the ambassador the fuzz supreme in Alton, will receive over as principal of the Carbondale Police Department, real June 15. "It's an remarkable opportunity," he said. "I'm absolutely looking further to it.
" O'Guinn, 47, was chosen as the issue of a public search, Carbondale City Manager Allen Gill said. O'Guinn has 22 years with the Alton department, the matrix seven as minister chief, and was a lieutenant before that. "He has worked in for all practical purposes every (departmental) task one day or another," Alton Police Chief Chris Sullivan said. He said O'Guinn would be missed.
O'Guinn has held numerous administrative roles, including guide of patrol, and has served on the investigations bureau, the Metropolitan Enforcement Group of Southwestern Illinois (a antidepressant business force). He also has served as commander of the ILEAS Region 8 team, a idiosyncratic extract designed to counter to developing desperado or high-profile threats. ILEAS is the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System. Sullivan said O'Guinn had a -carat organization of training that will come in at as chief, including supply literature and other administrative duties. O'Guinn's locate in Alton, adore the boss of police, is source to mayoral choice and presumably would have to be acted upon by the entering new mayor, Tom Hoechst, who is expected to big cheese his annual appointments on May 27.
O'Guinn said he plans to give a "retirement notice," with the functioning lover as May 27. He will be leaving a bailiwick that has 65 sworn officers, six jailers and five dispatchers. He is active to become the greatest cop at a area with 68 sworn officers and 15 civilians. Carbondale's inhabitants is 25,571, while Alton's at the end census was listed as 30,496.
With the coming census, the two populations are expected to be almost definitely the same. O'Guinn said he would ordain definitive plans for the Carbondale segment only after first place talking to the officers there. "I real want to assemble down with the pikestaff and get their ideas. I don't want to be reinventing the wheel," he said.
"They may have tried a lot of things and understand what works." The unique paramount said he would be working closely with the individual watch department that serves Southern Illinois University Carbondale. SIUC has a 35-man concern handling a grind citizenry of roughly 20,000. The retirement in December of Carbondale Police Chief Bob Ledbetter led to O'Guinn's hiring.
The occupation had been handled during the interim by 18-year Carbondale control long-serving Jeff Grubbs. Gill said Carbondale has a mostly younger violence and needs a superior who can set the rectitude emphasis and be physical in the community. "I feel attracted to him," Gill said about O'Guinn. "I'm counting on him being a very honesty Number One.
" O'Guinn has 26 years of principle enforcement experience, having started his pursuit as a the gendarmes policeman in Freeburg. He joined the Alton exact in 1987, advancing through the ranks of detective, guard sergeant, lieutenant and intermediary chief. Along with his work force work, he has been a sniper gang leader, Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force detective, "use of force" lecturer and firearms instructor. In 1996, O'Guinn garnered headlines when he talked a excited progenitor from jumping off the Clark Bridge during a 40-minute drama.
Gill said O'Guinn participated in the develop of a revitalized $11 million Alton Law Enforcement Center, which opened in April 2002, and was supporting in context up the department's in-house computer network and the department's Web-based lawlessness mapping. Carbondale is planning to construct a unripe post and will rely on O'Guinn's input, Gill said. O'Guinn holds a bachelor's lengths from Sterling College and a learn of illustrious government station from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He is a gradate of the 223rd term of the FBI National Academy, Class of 2005.
He also is an Illinois certified firefighter. Gill said the option was the culmination of a five-month search, which started up to date December. A complete of 53 resumes were received, from local, in-state and out-of-state applicants. With the support of the PAR Group of Chicago, a close by supervision gubernatorial quest group, 15 candidates were interviewed by telephone, and seven were selected for dear interviews.
An conversation panel consisted of Gill and several other nearby and regional officials. Gill said one of the portentous things about O'Guinn is his involvement with the community of Alton. He is an helper Scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America and a baseball and soccer coach. O'Guinn received the East-West Gateway Council Emissary to Youth Award for founding the Alton Police Shop-With-A-Cop and Holiday Food Basket programs.
He helped get a federal "Weed and Seed" endowment that set up neighborhood exertion teams to disagreement problems caused by wrong recidivism and deteriorating and boarded-up houses. Gill said O'Guinn was appointed as the "Weed and Seed" relationship to the community and was advantageous in implementing the Nuisance Abatement Task Force, Youth Basketball Clinic, Neighborhood Problem Solving Meetings, Bicycle Patrol Unit and Citizen's Police Academy. His Line-In-The-Sand Task Force focused on removing recidivist criminals and pickle properties from troubled neighborhoods.
Gill said Carbondale, with its herd of learner residents, has a lot of rental property, and O'Guinn's circumstance with transforming neighborhoods will come in handy.
