Retiring Buffalo Grove cop 'loved being part of the community'
Since he was a youth in the Niles Police Department's Explorer program, Roy Bethge's passion has been law enforcement.
Bethge turned that passion into a nearly 30-year career, during which he became not only a high-ranking leader of Buffalo Grove's police force, but also a staunch advocate for the profession.
"I just wanted to serve the community," said Bethge, who retired Monday as Buffalo Grove's deputy chief. "I think I have done that, in a variety of different roles. I have been very fortunate throughout my career to have some amazing opportunities, to meet some incredible people and, I think, to make a difference."
Bethge, 50, said he has no immediate post-retirement plans, beyond focusing on his family, including wife, Judy, and sons, Gunther, 13, and Dietrich, 11.
He'll also continue to serve as a leader of The Virtus Group, an organization he co-founded to provide leadership consulting and training, as well as a course development consultant for Northwestern University's Center for Public Safety.
A long career in law enforcement might have seemed unlikely for Bethge when he was young. After spending his early years living near Wrigley Field in Chicago, his family moved to Niles when he was 10. There he had his first exposure to law enforcement through the Niles police department's Explorer program.
"When he was younger, as a young teenager and high school student, he had some struggles," Judy Bethge said of her husband. "And it was really somebody at the Niles Police Department Explorer Post that kind of took him under his wing and asked him to come in and check out the Explorer program. That really changed the trajectory of his life."
After attending Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Bethge joined the Oakton Community College police force while working on his associate degree at the Des Plaines school.
He later applied for a job in Buffalo Grove and, after a wait of about two years, began work as a patrol officer. He took on assignments ranging from crime prevention officer to investigator to technical services officer before being named deputy chief of operations in 2015.
"Ultimately I love being a cop," he said. "I love the idea of protecting and serving, being part of the community."
Buffalo Grove Chief Steve Casstevens calls Bethge " one of the most dedicated and passionate law enforcement officers I have ever worked with in 41 years on the job."
"People look up to him as a leader. He is a guy who has a great moral compass," Casstevens added. "And at the end of the day, as I have heard him often say, if it's for the betterment of the department and the village, then we should do it. He has a terrific outlook."
Bethge, who uses social media to remind people of the difference police make in their communities, said negative news stories about police in recent years had him feeling down until the village's National Night Out event last summer.
It was there, he said, that a woman approached him and introduced her daughter. It turned out that the girl had been involved in a car crash, and Bethge's actions had helped save her life.
"(She) said to her daughter, 'Officer Bethge is the guy that saved your life,'" he said.
"That was a significant moment, a reminder that a lot of the good that we do we don't even know, we don't even hear about," Bethge added. "And that's the reason that I raised my right hand in the first place, to make a difference."