Government

Landi Appointed Rock Island Police Chief

WVIK, Quad Cities NPR | By Herb Trix

Published April 26, 2022 at 11:04 AM CDT

As expected, the Rock Island City Council has approved the promotion of Interim Police Chief Richard Landi to be the Chief. Monday night, aldermen accepted the recommendation of several committees that interviewed candidates for the job.

Landi has worked for the police department for 28 years, starting in 1993 as a patrol officer, and working his way up to deputy chief, and then interim chief last fall when Jeff VenHuizen retired.

Before Rock Island, he served as Jail Administrator for the Mercer County Sheriff's Department and as an Auxiliary Police Officer for the Village of Milan.

Government

Herb Trix

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois. While a graduate student in the Public Affairs Reporting Program at the University of Illinois at Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University), he got his first taste of public radio, covering Illinois state government for WUIS. Here in the Quad Cities, Herb worked for WHBF Radio before coming to WVIK in 1987. Herb also produces the weekly public affairs feature Midwest Week – covering the news behind the news by interviewing reporters about the stories they cover.

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