Former CPD Commander Demoted, Sent To Rogers Park As Punishment

Former Cmdr. Ronald Kimble. Chicago Police Dept

Former Commander of Narcotics Ronald Kimble upset Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot recently and is being punished for not keeping his thoughts to himself. 

"A Chicago Police Department commander this week was reminded of a very important rule: Never get on the mayor’s bad side," reports CWB Chicago. "CPD is famous — or perhaps infamous — for giving 'soft landings' to connected leaders who go astray. Assigning the wayward executive to a do-nothing placeholder post is common."

Not so for Ronald Kimble. He's no longer a Commander. Demoted to lieutenant, they move him to the midnight shift. The demotion is bad enough, but the shift change isn't the end of the world. Unless you live 23 miles away. You see, Kimble resides on the Far South Side of Chicago. His midnight gig is in the 24th District in Rogers Park. CWB Chicago quotes an unnamed CPD source as noting that Kimble now has a 23-mile daily commute. Rogers Park is along Lake Michigan and borders Evanston.

But why, exactly, did this happen? Let's go back to CWB Chicago:

The source said Kimble was one of 21 police department executives who joined a conference call Monday with Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Manpower at CPD’s Organized Crime Division, which includes Kimble’s former narcotics unit, is being slashed from over 900 cops to 187.  

Kimble, the source said, went to bat for his unit, defending his performance and trying to justify runaway overtime expenses.

“He called her out,” the source said. “She launched him across the city.”

“He kept trying to tell everyone what narcotics had done,” according to the source. “It started getting loud.” Newly-appointed Police Supt. David Brown, who was on the call, “told him to shut up. It got out of hand.”

In short, Mayor Lightfoot is budget-cutting and feels the CPD can do with 713 fewer narcotics officers. That's a huge hit, and Kimble — the Commander of Narcotics — defended his unit's operations and spending.

But Lightfoot was having none of it. Exactly what Kimble said is unknown, but it sounds as though tempers flared and, as Brown said, "it got out of hand."

Mayor Lori Lightfoot announces the firing Dec. 2, 2019
of Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson.
(Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Kimble was not the only one to suffer. Kimble's supervisor, William Bradley, was removed as Deputy Chief of the new Criminal Networks Group, according to department sources, says the Chicago Sun-Times.

Bradley was also demoted to the rank of lieutenant, and assigned to a patrol district on Chicago's Northwest side, sources said.

“We can’t keep living in a world where the police department blows its overtime budget year in and year out by $100 million,” the mayor said last month.

Also See: Lightfoot Fires Top Cop Eddie Johnson for ‘Intolerable Actions’ - WTTW