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Acting Police Chief Winslow On Restoring Dept. Morale, Public Confidence

Peter Gray/WUIS

Springfield's new top cop says regaining the public's trust in his department is at the top of his to-do list.  

Acting Chief Kenny Winslow took over Monday for Robert Williams, whose signature at the bottom of a police union memo cleared the way for destruction of internal affairs files.

Williams, along with the city's attorney, this month stepped aside as the city faces a lawsuit alleging it violated public records laws.

Interim Chief Winslow says today he's focused on polishing the department's tarnished image:

"Trying to work on the morale thing. We've got to move the organization forward, we've got to get past this. We'll cooperate with any kind of investigation that's going on. We'll do the right thing, and, again, our big thing right now is just moving forward. I think gaining that public confidence back - not only with the public in general, but also with the aldermen."

Springfield aldermen meet Tuesday night to consider releasing to the public tapes of a closed-door meeting five days after the city was sued over the file shredding.
 
Listen to our full interview with Acting Police Chief Winslow here: 

Peter has a diverse background in public, independent and commercial media production. Beginning in 2011, Peter served as reporter and “Morning Edition” host for WUIS. He completed his work at WUIS in 2014. Prior to his start in public radio, he covered the Illinois legislature for NBC affiliate WANDTV-17 and helped launch Phenom Features, a non-profit apprenticeship film studio. Peter hails from Oswego, Ill., where he grew up watching WTTW-11/PBS.
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