After 26 years with the Forest Park Police Department, Chief Ken Gross, 57, has announced he is retiring and Sept. 30 is his last day working for the village.
“I’m going to miss the people I work with and those I work for: The people I’ve met in the community, business owners, residents. I’ve met a lot of good people,” Gross told the Review.
Village Administrator Rachell Entler said staff doesn’t yet have information on who will be interim chief after September, or if the new permanent chief will come from inside the Forest Park Police Department or be an external hire.
Though Gross doesn’t have any say in the hiring process, he said he assumes Deputy Chief Chris Chin will be interim chief — and hopes that he’ll stay in the role.
“My hope would be that the powers that be look within the department because we do have good officers within the administration that could fill my role, particularly Chin, who has been my deputy chief since I became chief,” Gross said.
Gross became police chief at the end of 2021. After Police Chief Tom Aftanas retired, Gross, then a deputy chief of two years, was acting chief for at least a month before he officially took on the role.
“I knew I would be a sergeant in retirement. I had no idea I’d go above that,” Gross said. “When I started, I planned on leaving after 20 years.”
Gross was 31 when he started at the Forest Park Police Department in 2000. He came from a career in business.
“I thought I would take my business acumen, along with leadership skills, people skills and conflict skills, that I gathered with a police department and bring them back to the private sector,” Gross said. “I was selective with what departments I chose. The opportunities to go into law enforcement weren’t as great as they are now, but I still knew I wanted to pick a department that would match my personality. This definitely was it.”
After field training, Gross worked as a Forest Park Police Department patrol officer until 2005. Then, he worked for the department’s tactical unit — which identifies where crime and drug patterns occur — and became an evidence technician, which evaluates and preserves evidence at the crime scene. Gross was a patrol sergeant from 2007 to 2013, when the Forest Park Police Department created a commander position which he filled, overseeing the patrol division.
In 2016, Gross became a lieutenant, promoted after taking a lieutenant’s exam, and was in charge of the police department’s investigative division.
When asked what some of the hardest parts of his career have been, “Anything could be a challenge,” Gross said. “It’s somewhat of a complaint department,” since much of his job is fielding complaints from citizens, the business community, political bodies and other officers. “It’s just trying to please everybody, and it’s not always easy to please everyone you have contact with, but we try our best, and I always do my best to make this a good place to work and a safe community.”
Gross is a third-generation police officer. He grew up in Cicero, where his father, grandfather and sister worked for the police department.
He said he was originally going to retire next April, so he would have been with the Forest Park Police Department for exactly 27 years. But he decided to retire at the end of this year, instead.
“Like anything in life, you get to a point when you know it’s time to go,” Gross said.
In retirement, Gross hopes to travel more with his wife. He said, in 2018, they went to Europe for the first time and have been returning at least twice a year since.
“Hopefully there’s more of that in my future,” Gross said. “I’d like to see a little more of the world.”
But Gross said he’s open to other work opportunities down the road, whether they’re in a police department or not: “I’ll see what’s available.”
Gross has also run nine marathons, which are 26.2 miles.
“I’ve been here just over 26.2 years, so I ran my career a little bit longer than a marathon,” Gross said.