St. Charles to recommend Daniel Likens as Police Chief in September
Daniel J. Likens is set to take over the post beginning in September, the city said.
Likens comes from the Illinois State Police, where he served as a lieutenant colonel and the assistant deputy director for the Division of Criminal Investigations Statewide Investigative Command, according to the ISP's website. Per the release from St. Charles, he was also on the planning committee for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, leading operations for the event, and worked as the project lead for an initiative managing the installation of more than 500 license plate readers across the state.
Former St. Charles Police Chief James Keegan — who had been on a personal leave of absence since November, the city has said — stepped down in March, according to past reporting. Deputy Police Chief Eric Majewski has been serving as interim chief while the department searched for a replacement.
Since then, the city said it has been conducting a national search, which Mayor Clint Hull, members of the City Council and some city staff members participated in.
In June, the city said they made an offer to a candidate, but the individual accepted a police chief job elsewhere, according to past reporting.
Likens is set to be formally recommended for the role by City Administrator Heather McGuire at the Sept. 2 City Council meeting, the release said. He will assume the role on Sept. 15.
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And though there are currently four members of the council majority coalition, and two more progressives running for a seat, Savage and Bingle focused almost exclusively on a single man: Councilman Zack Zappone, who Savage is running against. Bingle made no mention of his own opponent, abortion rights organizer Sarah Dixit. "Four years ago, we had a $4 billion surplus at the state level, and this year, they're asking for $17 billion in state taxes, something (Savage's) opponent supported ...and that's why Zack Zappone's got to go, right?" Bingle said. "... Zappone needs to be ousted from office," Savage said at another point. "He goes out there with his own personal agenda, trying to help out with the LGBTQ and all these small groups that really don't have a huge population here in Spokane, and wasting your tax dollars on stupid stuff like transgender bathrooms ..." The council has not approved any spending on "transgender bathrooms." 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He argued that buses were inefficient and the central City Line's $82 million cost was wasteful. "I think we could probably save a bunch of money if we just contract with Uber and say, here you go, for our tax dollars," Bingle argued. "You don't have to stand at a bus stop in the snow or in the rain or, god forbid, there's somebody sleeping in (the bus)." Fund the police Both Bingle and Savage argued the city needed more officers, but didn't need to turn to a voter-approved tax increase last year to do so. "I opposed this measure, and the reason isn't because we don't need more police, we absolutely that doesn't need to be done through a tax increase," Bingle said. Both candidates argued that campaigners had misled the public last year when they pitched the sales tax, meant to fund police, fire and related services, arguing it lacked the promised transparency that would make it easy to follow how the money is being spent. 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