Oswego Village Board set to appoint interim police chief Tuesday

The Oswego Village Board on Tuesday is set to appoint Oswego Deputy Police Chief Jason Bastin as interim police chief following the retirement of Oswego Police Chief Jeff Burgner.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Burgner will be honored for his 27 years of service to the village. Burgner was hired as an Oswego police officer in 1996, became a detective in 2000 and was promoted to sergeant in 2004.

He graduated from Northwestern University’s Center for Public Safety School of Police Staff and Command in 2007 and went on to be appointed police captain in 2010. He was appointed chief in 2014.

“I just really enjoyed working here in the community and I enjoyed the support that we received and we still get from our community.”

—  Oswego Police Chief Jeff Burgner

New Oswego Village President Ryan Kauffman has said he is sad to see Burgner leave, but is excited for his next chapter and happy for him personally.

“He leaves huge shoes to fill, but he has positioned the Oswego Police Department extremely well, so we have a deep bench of experience,” Kauffman said. “Hiring Jeff’s replacement is the first major test I will face as president, so it’s critical to get right.”

In a previous interview, Burgner noted that the Oswego Police Department continues to grow and will be hiring two new police officers, bringing the number of officers up to 54.

“We are building a police department that is going to take this village into the future. We’re finding that more and more calls are requiring two officers to go rather than maybe in the past it might have been one. Those are things we look at to determine staffing levels and how we deploy our resources. I think we’ll see the benefits of having more officers on a shift.”

The need for additional police officers has risen as Oswego’s population continues to grow.

“I think the village is doing a nice job in keeping up with that,” Burgner said.

Burgner oversaw the planning and construction of the department’s current headquarters, which opened in 2018, and said he feels good that the department has implemented a number of wellness initiatives for police officers.

“I think there’s still work to be done, but I think we’ve made a lot of strides in making sure we’re taking care of our officers’ mental well-being and their physical well-being,” he said. “Statistics right now are showing that more officers every year in our country are dying from suicide.”

Burgner said he is also proud to be a part of a project to build the Kendall County Law Enforcement Memorial at the Kendall County Courthouse in Yorkville.

“I did that in my time on the Kendall County Association of Chiefs of Police. We were able to provide that memorial for the families of the fallen officers. I felt really good about that.”

Burgner said he is happy that he has stayed with the department for as long as he has, and has liked being part of the Oswego community.

“When I got here, the town had a population of about 5,000 people would be my guess. It had a pretty small department, but there was growth coming. I really liked the leadership and I liked the opportunities that we were starting to see available as the department began to grow.

“I just really enjoyed working here in the community and I enjoyed the support that we received and we still get from our community. That makes it very easy to want to stay here and work for Oswego.”