For the first time ever, Ron Teachman will wake up on Thursday, Oct. 1, as a private citizen of South Bend.
Teachman resigned from his position as chief of the South Bend Police Department earlier this month after taking a job as the director of midwest operations for SST Inc., the parent company of ShotSpotter. His tenure as chief will end with September.
- RELATED: Ron Teachman resigning as chief of South Bend Police, Sept. 18, 2015
Division Chief Scott Ruszkowski will be sworn in as chief on Thursday morning.
Teachman visited 95.3 MNC during Michiana’s Morning News on Tuesday, Sept. 29, and said that after two years and nine months, he will miss his fellow police officers the most.
“We are a department of people, of men and women,” Teachman said. “Their professionalism, their dedication, their committment. The work they do is sometimes just amazing. I’ve often said that everyday that I come to work there’s a wow factor. Somebody’s done something over the last 24 hours where you just shake your head and go ’wow. That’s incredible stuff.’
”Most of it doesn’t get reported. Most of it just goes by the boards. But there are some terrific people in that department. I will miss them… It has been an honor and a privilege to serve with them.”
Teachman will continue living in South Bend for the “foreseeable future” but will often be traveling in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan for his new job.
ShotSpotter was installed in South Bend on Jan. 29, 2014.
Though there are many things Teachman said he would have liked to move forward, he has faith in Ruszkowski.
“I think Scott’s going to do a great job,” Teachman said. “He bleeds South Bend blue. No one cares more about the community than Scott Ruszkowski. If the public supports him to the extent or better than they supported my administration, great things are going to happen.”
- RELATED: Scott Ruszkowski named chief of South Bend Police, Sept. 18, 2015