Promotions within Kankakee police

KANKAKEE — While the top two positions within the Kankakee Police Department remain in place, there is significant change within the department.

The change also includes a historical move.

Kankakee County’s largest department has promoted its first Black female officer to the rank of sergeant, as Officer Melvina Calvin-Edwards, a member of the force since 2005, will take her new role effective Tuesday.

She is only one of several changes within the nearly 70-member department.

Effective Jan. 14, the department will promote Sgt. Tim Klopp, an officer since March 1996, to the rank of lieutenant, and he will then become the department’s commander of patrol.

He will oversee the 45-member patrol division, replacing current commander of the 45-member division, Lt. Ken Mallindine, who is retiring. His last day is Friday.

A 1987 graduate of Kankakee High School, Klopp, a resident of Aroma Township, has also been a detective and the department’s field training officer.

Klopp was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 2011.

“I’ve been training for this,” he said.

There will be three lieutenants serving under Klopp. Each lieutenant oversees a patrol shift. There are eight sergeants who serve under the lieutenants.

One of those sergeants will be Todd Koerner, a member of the force since 2017. Koerner will be promoted to the rank of sergeant on Jan. 15.

While these veteran officers are rising to leadership roles within the department’s administrative ranks, two new officers were introduced Monday to the Kankakee City Council.

The newest members of the force are Christopher Romero, 22, of Chicago Heights, and Christopher McCarter, 28, of Bourbonnais.

Romero, a 2020 graduate of Alan B. Shepard High School in Palos Heights, came to know Kankakee through his wife, Yulitza, 22, who is a lifelong city resident. Romero said he will soon be relocating to Kankakee.

McCarter, a 2015 graduate of Kankakee Trinity Academy, had been a correctional officer at the Jerome Combs Detention Center. He had also been a five-year assistant manager at Discount Tire in Bradley.

“I just didn’t feel the love (at Discount Tire),” he said. “I didn’t think I wanted to do that the rest of my life.”

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