Bettendorf will soon have a new police chief. Next month, Phil Redington will retire after working for the city for 41 years.
Michelle O'Neill reports Redington was a junior at St. Ambrose University in Davenport when he got hired to work for the Bettendorf Police Department.
Phil Redington became Bettendorf's police chief in the early 1990s when the main problem was dealing with gang crime. He says the city took a pro-active approach which has been successful. School resource officers at Bettendorf middle and high schools are armed and ready to enforce the law. But Chief Redington says it's not easy being a kid, and the real benefit is the relationships officers develop with the students.
He's also witnessed the effects of technology on policing. Redington was on hand when all the police, fire, and sheriff's departments, emergency management, and ambulance services in Scott County merged their dispatch systems. The Scott Emergency Communications Center opened seven years ago.
The Bettendorf Police Chief is very grateful for all the support he and his department have received from people who live and work in the city.