Flossmoor has appointed a successor to former police Chief Jerel Jones, who alleged he was fired this spring due to racial discrimination.
Carl Estelle, the special events administrator for Country Club Hills, will begin the new position of director of police services in Flossmoor July 29, to eventually transition into police chief once he becomes a sworn officer in Illinois, as his certifications are from California, according to a village news release.
While the Village Board approved the creation of the position July 1, Estelle was chosen for the job by Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson.
“Estelle’s proven leadership and management skills, along with his immense experience in law enforcement, will be an asset to the village of Flossmoor,” Nelson said in the release. “I am confident that Carl Estelle is the person Flossmoor needs for the job today; we are excited to have him join our team.”
Estelle hails from Flossmoor and, before working for Country Club Hills, was director of security operations and compliance for the City Colleges of Chicago safety and security department. He was also police captain for six years in East Palo Alto, California, “where he helped to dramatically reduce crime and acts of violence while effectively addressing risk-management issues and enhancing the Police Department’s use of technology,” the news release said.
As director of police services, he will coordinate the village’s Emergency Management Agency, in which he will work with the Flossmoor Fire Department in the training and deployment of the village’s emergency operations plan and incident action plans, according to the news release. The village’s acting police chief is Keith Taylor.
Estelle was part of the 2022 search for a police chief that yielded Jones, who was dismissed after about a year for poor performance, the village administration said at the time. However, Jones filed a federal lawsuit against the village in March, claiming he was fired due to his race.
Flossmoor Trustee Joni Bradley Scott said concerns over the nature of Jones’ dismissal prompted the village manager to promise to answer questions trustees had and provide information ahead of hiring a new chief. However, she said she found out about the new position at the same time as the public,
“That is my concern in terms of how we are going about things and the transparency that we have as a board and we’re providing to the community,” Bradley Scott said in an interview Wednesday. She said she belives the village never provided strong reasoning behind their decision to fire Jones and should make their expectations clear ahead of hiring his successor.
“If we’re saying that this person (Jones) didn’t have the credentials and they didn’t live up to the job, then we have to show the public what they did that didn’t live up to the job and how this person is going to be exceedingly and abundantly better,” she said.
Village officials said Jones understood “the first year was ‘probationary,’ during which his direct supervisor was obligated to assess whether he was meeting the Village’s high expectations.”
Estelle did not respond to requests for comment but said in the news release he plans to center Flossmoor’s policing around the community, adding “practices must be inclusive, fair, unbiased and equitable for all residents.” He also said he wants to make crime analysis more efficient by using up-to-date, data-driven technologies.
While Flossmoor is generally considered a safe community, addressing property crimes, traffic-safety issues and occasional burglaries and more serious crimes remain a priority,” Estelle says. “The Police Department must evaluate crime statistics to respond appropriately where services are needed, and it must balance proactive crime-prevention efforts with responsive law enforcement.”
ostevens@chicagotribune.com
