The empty boxes in the office of Lake Forest Police Chief Karl Walldorf offer a not-so-subtle hint about the next chapter for him and the city.
Walldorf is scheduled to retire on Friday, closing out a 30-year run during which he moved up from patrol officer to police chief. He is about to go on to a new venue as becomes executive director of the 19th Judicial Circuit Courts.
“It looks like an interesting and challenging position for me, and a way for me to continue my government service in an entirely different branch of government,” he said. “At some point, I had to find my next act and working with the judges is a really good opportunity for me.”
As he prepares to move on, Walldorf reminisces about his three decades as a Lake Forest police officer, the only place where he has worked in law enforcement.
“I was very fortunate to land in Lake Forest,” he said. “It’s been a great town to work for.”
He officially joined the city’s police force in January of 1994, and steadily moved up the ranks. Upon the 2016 retirement of James Held, Walldorf was promoted to chief.
“It’s hard work, determination and a lot of luck,” he said of moving up.
When Walldorf ticks off accomplishments over his years with the department, he leads with the creation of the city’s Citizens Police Academy in the 1990s. The goal of the program is to create a better understanding of police work for residents. While he no longer runs the program, he remains very happy with the results.
“It’s really rewarding to see that still roll on,” he said. “We’ve connected our officers with over 1,000 residents over those 25 years.”
He also takes pride in Lake Forest’s collaborative efforts with other law enforcement agencies.
“When we can all work together and accomplish something, such as arresting someone who needs to be arrested, that team effort is amazing,” he said. “It charges you up and keeps you coming back. Those are the memories you keep forever.”
One of those neighboring agencies is immediately north in Lake Bluff, where Walldorf and the village’s police chief, Matt Smizinski, have worked together for many years.
“I was fortunate to have met Karl during the initial part of the field training program with Lake Bluff (2003),” Smizinski wrote in an e-mail. “Since that time, we have discussed many aspects of law enforcement from a local to a more global perspective.
“We were also team members on the NIPAS (Northern Illinois Police Alarm System) Mobile Field Force during our careers,” he continued. “Karl has consistently been there to share ideas with and provide a perspective. For this, I am truly thankful.”
While happy with many things, Walldorf admits there are parts of the job he won’t miss, especially the long hours. He mentions he has had only July 4th off in 30 years to be with his family.
He also cites frustration with the state legislature and laws passed in Springfield designed to be reformative.
“Inevitably they make law enforcement more expensive, more difficult and less efficient,” he said.
As he packed up, Walldorf looked back on some of the high-profile events over the last few years.
There was a fatal shooting at a party at a Lake Forest house in October 2017, where no one has ever been charged with the murder.
“It’s always a disappointment, and it is very rare in Lake Forest history that someone hasn’t been charged after a homicide,” he said.
In January 2018, Walldorf’s officers investigated a murder-suicide in downtown Lake Forest where two people died, including the suspect.
Then in June 2020, following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, unrest erupted in several parts of the country. In Lake Forest, a rally was scheduled for Market Square and, ahead of the event, some residents expressed concern there could be serious problems.
However, there were no significant problems despite hundreds of people who turned out, he said.
Walldorf noted with his previous work as a NIPAS riot commander and team commander, he was optimistic everything would run smoothly.
“We had a good plan in place,” he recalled. “We borrowed officers from NIPAS. We had 24 bicycle officers in the area downtown. I don’t think any of our officers were as nervous as some of our residents were.”
Just over two years later, Walldorf and his team worked on the 2022 shooting at the Highland Park July 4th parade, where seven were killed and many others wounded by a gunman.
Over half of Lake Forest’s officers were immediately dispatched to the downtown Highland Park crime scene after the shooting, he recalled. After the suspect returned to the area a few hours later, several law enforcement agencies, including Lake Forest’s, joined forces and arrested the alleged gunman at the intersection of Route 41 and Westleigh Road.
“We were trying to make sure this went the right way,” Walldorf said. “All of us were very surprised that he got out of the car and cooperated. He had a gun right next to him.”
As he reminisces about the headline-grabbing stories, he assesses the evolving job of the modern police officer, believing it is more complex than when he started 30 years ago.
“There is no doubt the officer today is expected to have a broader width of knowledge on a wider variety of topics,” he said. “We certainly undertake more tasks than we ever have.”
Walldorf cited an example of the evolution in technology for all of society, and its corresponding effect on law enforcement. He noted how some Lake Forest residents were among the first to use e-commerce in the 1990s.
“They were buying and selling things on eBay before anyone else,” he said.
He said fraud related to car sites and online bill payments was rampant in the 1990s, and it was not always easy to work with other law enforcement agencies that were unfamiliar with those types of crimes.
In recent years, those same issues now involve cryptocurrency.
“We have always had the challenge here of trying to catch up with the latest technological scam,” he said.
Spotlighting another change, Walldorf said in the 1990s when he started there were ample numbers of candidates to become police officers. That is not the case today as Lake Forest, like many other communities, now uses a lateral hiring program to entice officers from other municipalities. The program is in place at a time when fewer people are interested in law enforcement, in part because of high-profile incidents across the country that have changed attitudes about the police.
For his part, when he sees a story in the news about police interactions with the public, he wonders if there is enough perspective and context.
“I get curious because most of the time what you are given is a very small piece of the puzzle,” he said. “Most of us, what we want is to know more. We know that five seconds of video is not the whole thing.”
He believes few officers now trust the media, and is not sure how relations will improve.
“That’s a problem for the industry as a whole, because no matter what you think of any particular journalist or journalistic outlet, you are going to have to work with them,” he said. “It’s part of your job, like working with different governmental agencies.”
However, Walldorf realizes there are cases when police do not act appropriately.
“There are a lot of good officers who make a horrible decision in the moment and do something illegal,” he said.
Walldorf said one of the biggest responsibilities for police administrators is to identify officers who may not work out and take them off the force.
“They don’t exhibit the characteristics they need under stress,” he said.
In his final days as police chief, Walldorf is set to hand off the command to Deputy Police Chief Mike Lange, who will be the acting chief until a permanent successor is named, according to city spokeswoman Dana Olson.
Overall, Walldorf speaks with satisfaction about his work and the department that now has 39 officers as he prepares to move on to the next chapter of his career.
“You have a big responsibility to the people who work here and the 20,000 residents,” he said. “We’ve always had great officers. It’s about them, not me.”
