Photo: Former Police Chief Mike O’Connell who passed away unexpectedly at 60 years of age.The Tinley Park Village Board is expected to soon hire an interim police chief and begin a search for a full-time chief, Trustee Brian Maher said Friday.
Mike O’Connell, chief for nearly 16 years, died May 11 from complications after heart surgery.
The village board likely will discuss the search in closed session Tuesday night, Maher said.
“We’ve had some preliminary discussions about it. We’re going to start a search of candidates outside and candidates inside the department, if there are any interested candidates in the department,” Maher said.
Police Cmdr. Pat McCain, the acting chief, said Friday he has not decided whether he will apply for the job.
“We’ll see what the criteria are,” McCain said.
An interim chief probably will be hired through the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, Maher said. The interim chief would not be someone who will apply for the full-time job, he said.
For the interim position, Tinley Park can choose from a list of retired police chiefs willing “to help out towns that are in a lurch and need an experienced chief who is fair and impartial,” said Mark Wilkans, acting executive director of the chiefs association.
“The Chicago metro area is well-represented,” Wilkans said.
Maher, chairman of the village board’s public safety committee, said the board doesn’t want to rush into a decision.
The search process could take three to six months, village manager Scott Niehaus said. That’s how long it took before Tinley Park hired O’Connell after Police Chief Jim Wade died of a heart attack in December 1994.
Although the village hired a firm to do a nationwide search in that instance, O’Connell was hired from the Riverdale Police Department, where he had been chief for six years.
Maher said he was “shocked” by the death of O’Connell, 60.
“He wasn’t the kind of guy you’d think would be taken so young. It reinforces that nobody is promised tomorrow,” Maher said.