DEKALB (WREX) -
After nearly four decades on the DeKalb Police Department the city's police chief will step down. Chief Bill Feithen retires in a little more than a week, but he isn't leaving law enforcement. He is going to Monmouth, Illinois to be their chief. But for a man who started his career in DeKalb and worked his way up to the top he leaves a lot of memories with the city.
"It has been a wonderful opportunity for me. I arrived at school to go to Northern in 1971, fall of 1971," says Chief Feithen.
The son of two Lockport, IL police officers never left DeKalb. Chief Bill Feithen started with the police department in 1975 and became the top cop 11 years ago. He was one of the first responders during the shooting at Northern Illinois University.
"As I ran up to Cole Hall students were still fleeing the area, injured students were laying outside. We started to coordinate efforts not only to treat the students but to locate the gunman," says Feithen.
Feithen and other police officers went into that building not knowing if there was more than one gunman or what the situation was in an effort to save students. Cases like the NIU attacks and most recently the murders of Northern students Toni Keller and Steven Agee will stay with Feithen. But the Chief says no matter how someone has died telling a parent they've lost a child is the hardest part of his job.
"Talking to the parents of a crime victim is no less heart wrenching than talking to a speaking to a family of a teenager killed in a car crash," says Feithen.
He says working with the students who attend NIU can be difficult. He says there are times he can't understand the decisions they make that alter their lives and those around them forever. But being around the students is also his favorite part of his job.
"I've truly enjoyed working and living in a university community. And being around students certainly has it's challenges but it adds a life, an energy, a vitality to a community," says Feithen.
February 24th is Feithen's last day. The city has not picked out a new chief yet.
