Elgin Community College's new top cop takes helm in January
After 27 years in law enforcement, Dave Kintz isn't quite ready to hang it up.
Kintz, who is retiring today as deputy chief with the St. Charles Police Department, will lead Elgin Community College's campus police.
"I don't like to look at this as retirement. I like to look at it as external promotion," said Kintz, 49, of Sugar Grove.
Kintz takes the helm at ECC on Jan. 11 and will oversee a department of 14 sworn officers. His base annual salary is $110,000, plus health insurance and retirement benefits. He is eligible to begin drawing his pension at 50.
More than 30 candidates applied for the job and were reviewed by a committee of college faculty, employees and administration. Applicants also were vetted by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, officials said.
"We wanted to make sure we had the top person for this (job)," ECC President David Sam said.
Sam said Kintz has "strong interpersonal skills" that will help him develop relationships with the police officers and the college community.
He succeeds former ECC Police Chief Emad Eassa, who left April 21.
Eassa's departure came amid allegations by two ECC police officers accusing him of engaging in sexually explicit gender- and race-based discrimination, and racially charged language and behavior for three years. In September, the officers filed a federal lawsuit against the college claiming gender, age and racial discrimination.
Since the scandal, ECC's police department has been led by Bob Duffy, a retired Elgin deputy chief.
Kintz said Duffy has helped improve the department's image and believes the transition will be smooth.
"Bob Duffy has done a great job of opening the lines of communication," Kintz said. "I do know that the conditions have already changed."
Kintz said he hopes to use the same model of cooperation and communication that has worked well in St. Charles.
"All the officers (at ECC) are veteran officers," he said. "They have a lot of former command-level officers who bring a lot of skill and experience."
Kintz began his career with St. Charles after graduating with a degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His father, Jim, worked for the department for 22 years until 1990.
Early on Kintz was a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer and a school resource officer for St. Charles Unit District 303 elementary schools.
"I really enjoyed the interaction back then with the students," Kintz said. "The SRO program has been one of our more successful programs. You have to rely on the community for not only support but for information. Early on you come in and think you are the police and you can handle things. Very quickly you learn you can't do it by yourself."
His most trying case was the March murders of two teenagers by their father. Randy Coffland killed his twin daughters and injured his estranged wife before turning a gun on himself and taking his own life.
"It was extremely sad," Kintz said. "The magnitude ... the emotions of it ... obviously, we are in a very nice community here and we don't deal with a lot of violent crime, and that kind of put everything into one case. I am grateful for the officers who were on the scene that day and the entire department response on how they handled the situation."
What he will miss most about community policing is manning the city's many festivals and parades. Yet, Kintz said he is looking forward to his new challenge of building relationships at ECC.
"It's something that's going to be a bit outside my comfort zone," he said. "I am excited about the opportunity to work with a different group of the student population."
Kintz and his wife, Heidi, have a son, Austin, 20, at the Air Force Academy, and daughter Ainsley, 15, is a sophomore at Kaneland High.