CLEVELAND – Cleveland Police Chief John Foster has announced his retirement. Foster handed in his resignation letter, which will be effective December 28th, to a surprised city council Monday night.
Foster has been top cop in Cleveland for the past 17 years.
Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Chief Foster said no one thing led him to decide to retire, but he admitted that he has had some health issues and one bad scare recently. He said, “that made me realize that I need some time for me.”
Foster reflected on the past 23 years, “I came here 23 years ago looking for a home as a working man and a police officer, and I found a home, and I found a group of people that were remarkable to work for, absolutely remarkable. The whole council, mayors that I’ve worked for has been wonderful. But you know it comes a time when you know its time to go home and cut the grass and I’m ready to go home and find out what it’s like to cut the grass on Wednesday instead of Saturday or Sunday. Its been good, its been fun,” said Foster.
He started with the department as a patrol officer and worked his way up the ranks before being named chief in 2002, he served as interim chief prior to that. Foster says even if he hadn’t been named chief he would have stayed with the department, “Me becoming chief, that was just a bonus, it had nothing to do with whether I would stay or not because it has to do with the quality of people I work for and the quality of our citizens,” he said.
The council was taken by surprise by Foster’s announcement and did not comment on what their next step would be, the council did go into executive session following the public meeting and the chief’s retirement was expected to be discussed. The council came out of the executive session and took no action and made no announcement.
