The City of Highland Park has hired a Park Ridge deputy police chief to take over the reins of its north suburban police department, starting Feb. 23.
Louis E. Jogmen, 47, was selected from more than 100 applicants for the position, which opened up in August with the retirement of former Chief Paul Shafer, according to the city.
City Manager Ghida Neukirch described Jogmen as an experienced, innovative, collaborative police leader with strong managerial and community outreach skills.
“I have had a really good exposure to law enforcement in my 24 years (in Park Ridge),” Jogmen said Monday of his varied duties with that department. He added that he’s also gained a broader perspective on policing through his work with the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. He is currently chair of the organization’s traffic committee.
“Working with that organization has helped me develop a much more comprehensive approach to managing a police agency,” Jogmen said. He said his policing priorities fall under the six pillars of the President’s 21st Century Policing Task Force established under Barack Obama. Those are building trust and legitimacy, policy and oversight, technology and social media, community policing and crime reduction, training and officer wellness, Jogmen said.
Jogmen described the opportunity to lead the Highland Park Police Department as a dream come true.
“I come from a law enforcement family,” he said. “My father was a police officer and I have always wanted to be a police officer since I was a young boy. To be chief of police in a community as highly-regarded as Highland Park, that enjoys such an excellent reputation of effective and progressive governance and management is a dream come true.”
His father, Louis F. Jogmen, a Tinley Park patrolman, was shot in the head in 1977 after exchanging himself for a hostage during an armed robbery at a 7-Eleven. He died when Jogmen was 16 from esophageal cancer; the younger Jogmen believes it was caused by exposure to possible carcinogens during the many surgeries he had following the shooting.
“I work everyday to make my Dad proud,” he said.
Park Ridge Police Chief Frank Kaminski characterized Jogmen as part of a new generation of leadership in policing.
“He is very young. He is innovative. He has helped out here with a lot of the community policing programs, technology and computerization,” Kaminski said. “He has tried to help bring us into the 21st century.”
The chief added, “For me, it has just been a pleasure to mentor a young, up-and-coming person for the future.”
During time off from work, Jogmen conducts pre-employment psychological assessments of candidates for public safety positions for Stephen A. Laser and Associates, an employment consulting firm.
Jogmen holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, a master’s degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago and is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Executive Management and Police Staff and Command Program, the City of Highland Park said in its announcement.
Since September, retired Vernon Hills Police Chief Mark Fleischhauer has served as interim head of the Highland Park Police Department while the city was conducting its search.
The city will hold a reception for the new police chief from 4 to 6 p.m. March 1 at Highland Park City Hall, 1707 St. Johns Ave., Highland Park.
