Rockford Police Chief Chet Epperson is retiring and moving to a new job in law enforcement. The 53-year-old has been with the department for 30 years and chief of police since 2006.
Epperson made the announcement Wednesday afternoon at Rockford City Hall. Earlier in the day, he told his officers and other police department employees about his decision. Epperson became eligible for retirement earlier this year.
His retirement is effective November 13th. He'll receive 75% of his pay and full benefits.
Epperson says he took a part-time position with the group monitoring the consent decree to reform the New Orleans Police Department. He says his retirement will allow him to devote more time to that contractor work as well as his family. He'll continue to live in the city he grew up in and commute to New Orleans once every five to seven weeks.
Epperson's legacy will include a move by the department to geo-policing and increased reliance on statistics. It will also be marked by a contentious relationship with the police union, which gave him an overwhelming vote of "no confidence" early in his career. He later faced charges of misconduct brought against him by the union.
WNIJ's Phil Masterton and Susan Stephens prepared this report.
