Carpentersville names new police chief
Alan Popp, Streamwood's former police chief, has been hired to run the department in Carpentersville.
Selected among 40 candidates, Popp is expected to be sworn in at the March 20 village board meeting.
According to his public profile on LinkedIn, Popp graduated from Judson University in Elgin and spent 28 years working for the Streamwood Police Department.
In January, Popp was one of 24 Streamwood employees to accept a buyout offered to most department heads.
It allowed the village to cut staff without resorting to layoffs.
The initial group of 30 applicants was cut down to six, who had additional evaluations one Saturday with a search group of about a half dozen retired police chiefs. The candidates were given a minute to respond to questions on how to handle certain police situations. After that, the search group ranked the six and passed their names onto Village Manager J. Mark Rooney, who picked two finalists.
Rooney made the final decision after an interview with both candidates.
The job was advertised at $120,000 a year, but Village President Ed Ritter said he is unsure what Popp's salary will be.
Ritter did say that Popp comes highly recommended by people who have worked with him.
“There are a lot of things about him, one being that Streamwood has a very similar population and demographics, so there aren't going to be any surprises for him when he comes here,” Ritter said. “He runs a tight ship, but he's also very compassionate and he has a lot of qualities that we think will fit in very well with the needs of our police department.”
Carpentersville requires that all new department heads move into the village within a year, but officials are waiving that until Popp sells his house.
“We might have to give him some leeway if he can't sell his house right away,” Ritter said.
Popp, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, replaces Dave Neumann, who ran Carpentersville's police department for six years and retired in December.
Neumann was a 25-year department veteran.