No job he 'would rather do'

Jim Kuchenbecker sat at his desk Friday and pulled out an inscribed coin that read “If you do this job properly, there is nothing more noble you will do with your life.”

“I think that’s really what this is all about,” said Washington’s police chief. “It’s about service.”
Kuchenbecker recently celebrated his five-year anniversary at the police department and does not plan on going anywhere any time soon, he said.

“I don’t regret one day of being here,” said Kuchenbecker, 45. “I’ve been here five years, and I hope the next five is as good as the first five. I have no desire to go somewhere else.”
Kuchenbecker, formerly a commander at the Wheaton Police Department near Chicago, said he ended up in Washington “sort of by accident.”

One of Kuchenbecker’s officers approached him in his office about 2 a.m. one day in the spring of 2004.

“He said ‘There is a chief job open in Washington.’ Frankly, I didn’t know where Washington was. Everyone in Chicago thinks anything south of I-80 is southern Illinois. But when I looked at the map and got on the Web site, I thought it looked like a good place to work.”

Kuchenbecker had a phone interview with city administrator Bob Morris and later, an in-person interview May 15, 2004. He was sworn in Aug. 15, 2004, and started his new job as police chief the next morning.

“It has turned out to be the greatest experience of my law enforcement career,” Kuchenbecker said. “The people in Washington have been unbelievably supportive. Although I can never call myself a true Washingtonian because I wasn’t born here, this is definitely our hometown now.”

Kuchenbecker said there is not much to miss about his life near Chicago, aside from his family members who still live there.

“I don’t miss chicago at all ... I don’t miss the traffic. I don’t miss the pace of life. I don’t miss the people,” he said “The people down here are so much friendlier and giving and care deeply for each other. That’s something I notice all the time in Washington.”

Kuchenbecker said the police department’s greatest accomplishment during the last five years is re-engaging the community.

“We have had to rebuild some bridges and create an atmosphere of trust,” he said. “We are a part of the community, and we want the community to be comfortable with us.”

But the chief does not take all the credit for it. He compared his job to the captain of a ship.

“My job is to get on the bridge and keep us on course,” he said. “If we drift a little, my role is to bring us back on course. Some leaders don’t mind if they are one degree off, but that one degree, before you know it, is 20 degrees. If you ignore it, you’re eventually going to crash.”

Kuchenbecker said he has several goals for the future, including increasing the department’s staff, which now consists of 21 full-time employees and 11 part-time officers. He said he would also like to improve technology and “rehab” the building after other city workers move into the renovated library building this fall.

The chief said he also wants to build upon the police department’s reputation.

“I always say a reputation of 1,000 years can be destroyed by the conduct of one minute,” Kuchenbecker said.

Kuchenbecker lives in Washington with his wife, Jenny, daughter, Shelby, 17, and son, Brad, 14. His other son, Josh, 23, stayed in Chicago to go to college when the family moved to Washington.

“But we recently got some exciting news from my oldest son,” Kuchenbecker said. “He told us he wants to relocate because he loves the area so much he wants to move down here. He is in the testing process for the Peoria County Sheriff’s Office. We are hoping everything works out and he can get hired over there.”

Outside his job, there is not much time for hobbies, Kuchenbecker said, but he and his wife can be seen at their children’s sports events and socializing in the community.

“My wife is my best friend,” the chief said. “If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here. She is the rock of our family and so supportive of everything I do.”

Kuchenbecker said he is always on call and available to serve the community.

Swinging his rolling chair around Friday, Kuchenbecker picked up a jar of homemade jelly from his desk, pointing out that a local resident dropped it off at the department.

“It’s not about the jelly or the coffee cake or the pie,” he said. “It’s that the community feels comfortable enough with that they do things like this. I can’t think of any job I’d rather do.”