John Burke now finds himself in an interesting position. He is a new face at the Lake Forest Police Department, but he is also the new leader.
“It’s a fresh start and new challenge to come in and get to know everybody and figure out the inner workings of the city and how to collaborate with different partners,” he said. “The job is the same but it has been a new challenge.”
Burke was sworn in as Lake Forest’s police chief at the September 3 City Council meeting, marking a new chapter in a law enforcement career stretching back nearly three decades.
Burke was hired in Barrington in August 1997 and then joined what is now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Department after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He moved out to San Diego to work on 9/11-related cases but returned to Barrington in 2004 for family reasons.
He rose through Barrington Police ranks culminating with being named chief in April, but that turned out to be a short run as he made the move to Lake Forest in September.
Now less than a month into his new job, Burke speaks of a mutually introductory phase with his Lake Forest officers.
“It’s different when you come in and you are the chief of police and you are also the new guy,” he said. “I’m meeting with all of my co-workers one on one. It is more of a conversation so I can get to know them and they can get to me. I can talk about my expectations and they can talk about their specialties and what they are looking for from the chief of police.”
Those introductions are not just within the corridors of the Deerpath Road headquarters. Burke said he had already met with Matthew Montgomery, the superintendent of both the city’s elementary schools as well as Lake Forest High School.
Then in terms of saying hello to the general public, the City set up a series of “Chat with the Chief” engagement sessions at different city locations.
Burke said most people have come by and offered him best wishes in his new role. But he said there have been questions on several topics including speeding to city stickers to dogs.
On a recent Tuesday morning, with the roar of Waukegan Road traffic as background noise, Burke sat outside a coffee shop near the west side Metra station available to take questions. He accepted greetings from Chicago Bears defensive back Elijah Hicks and chit-chatted with others.
Lake Forest Colleen Breternitz who works at a nearby pilates studio talked to Burke about CROYA, the city’s youth organization. She said she wants to see enhanced community relations with officers being “a bigger part of the community” sensing that changed at the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I feel a lot of that separation created a lot of anxiety,” she said. “I’d really like to see a lot of kids and officers coming back together and not just because they are asking them to step off of scooters.”
In terms of taking over police operations, Burke said he is now reviewing scheduling for officers and may make changes to the existing shift layout.
He is excited over the City Council’s recent $3.5 million purchase of the vacant 1925 Field Court building in Conway Park, to convert it into the city’s new police headquarters.
“To have larger classroom facilities where we can host classes in the future I think would be very important,” he said. “The building is located right off the (Tri-State Tollway) so we can be a training hub for other agencies to come in if we have an instructor to be a host site.”
Regarding new officer recruitment, Burke acknowledges it has been a rocky period for police throughout the nation.
“In the past five to eight years the profession has taken a beating through media and other high profile events that were wrong but by and large officers are really talented, caring hard working people,” Burke said. “It is a great job if you are willing to take a step and go down that path.”
He said finding officers for Lake Forest presents some unique challenges given its low crime rate.
“You have to find the right candidate. They have to know coming in here we are not the City of Chicago. We are not drowning in call volume but there are still expectations as far as service and how we treat people.”
He takes on the issues related to his new role, but there is a still personal side. Burke is married to his wife, Erica and the couple has two children. He likes to run with cooking, particularly grilling, one of his favorite activities.
“I just love cooking,” he said. “It’s a good distraction.”
As he starts this latest phase of his career, Burke reflected on why he wanted to work in law enforcement in the first place.
“I loved helping people,” he remembered. “It is about service for me. I liked the excitement when I was younger that every day was a little different. When you got to work you were not doing the same thing over and over again. You didn’t know what you were going to get.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
