Lake Forest-Lake Bluff History Museum

Lake Bluff Police Department: By Foot, Bicycle, and Car

Making It Home

Lake Bluff police force, 1960. Help us identify these officers!

Police chief Christian Elfert, pictured 1960.

Police headquarters, 1960.

Village Hall, 1970 - squad car parked at right.

Franklin Pearce was appointed the first Village Marshal in 1896. In 1928, Eugene Spaid became Lake Bluff’s first Chief of Police until 1946 when Christian Elfert, who joined the force as a patrolman under Chief Spaid, was appointed chief. Two patrolmen, Gunner Swalgren and Harlan Kinney, were hired by Elfert and in 1953, Clarence Beckstrom joined the force. In addition to using bicycles and a motorcycle, this small police force now had a squad car to patrol the village.

In the early days, emergency police calls rang in the home of the police chief. Patrolmen in the 1940s looked for a light on top of the water tower as their signal to phone in to police station to receive an assignment.In 1953, Chief Elfert established a volunteer police reserve. Trained volunteers continued to serve through the late 1970s. When Chief Elfert retired in 1969, the force numbered nine.

The Police Department operated from the Village Hall until the Public Safety Building was completed in 1988. The “Calaboose,” a small jail cell in the Village Hall, was converted into office space in 1973.