New Police Chief Says 'Treating People With Respect' Is Important

ROMEOVILLE, IL — After 40 years of service to the community, Romeoville Chief of Police Mark Turvey retired May 29, passing the baton to Kenneth Kroll, who has been with the department for 25 years.

"It's an honor to be named chief of police," Kroll said. "It's an honor to do this job at any capacity. Being a police officer is a great job and noble profession."

During his years with the Romeoville PD, he has been a patrolman, a tactical officer, member of the Will County Sheriff’s Gang Suppression Unit and a detective. He was also assigned outside the PD to the Illinois State Police Cooperative Police Assistance Team (CPAT) Task Force. Prior to assuming the role of the chief, he was the administrative deputy chief.

Turvey was hired as a Romeoville police officer in 1980 and served the village "with honor, integrity, and loyalty to the community and the officers he served with," the Fraternal Order of Police Romeoville Lodge 15 said in a social media post. After the retirement of previous Chief Andrew Barto, Turvey served as interim chief until being officially named police chief in April 2011.

Kroll has to fill in big shoes, but said he is ready and has plans for the department in the next few years. One such idea is for the Romeoville Police Department to partner with the Romeoville Recreation Center and coach a variety of teams each year.

"We see a tremendous value in leaving a positive mark on 30 to 50 youngsters, and 40 to 70 parents each year," he said. "We foresee these kids and parents viewing us as 'Coach Ken' in the future. Each year that RPD assigns some police officers to coach a youth athletic team — the number of kids and parents that develop a different type of respect for the police compounds. "

Kroll said he has not been deterred by the recent anti-police sentiment that has been prevalent among the masses after George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after a Minneapolis police officer was filmed kneeling on his neck.

"Our approach is to do the next right thing," Kroll said. "Let's treat people with respect, use good people skills, use good common sense, and be honest. When we do those things, we have no worries."

He said he was closely mentored by Turvey and working with him for 24 years has left a lasting impression. And just as Turvey had made the department a better place, Kroll said their focus will always center on hiring good people.

"We have high standards. We have high integrity. We value training. We weed out those that can’t adhere to our high standards, high integrity, or keep up with important training," he said. "Since I became deputy chief in 2014, I’ve been telling our new hires — this is a people skills job. If you have good people skills, if you have good common sense, and if you can tell the truth, we can make you a good police officer. So our approach to ensuring our police officers act responsibly has nothing to do with the current social unrest."