The McDonough County Voice
Your eyes could tell you that Monday was a special day at Macomb City Hall. First, there was a tent on the city hall lawn. Second was the number of people gathering under and around the tent.
The tent was in place as an alternative to indoor crowd prohibitions. The Macomb City Council met inside the building as usual. Then they recessed and reconvened under the tent.
The outdoor gathering was to permit as large a group as possible to witness and participate in the swearing-in ceremony of Police Chief Jerel Jones. In addition to his family from Chicago, and many Macomb residents, representatives of the NAACP were on hand including the state president.
Patrick Stout
MACOMB A Chicago family came to Macomb this week to watch their nephew and son sworn in as the city s first African-American chief of police.
Chief Jerel Jones took the oath of office from City Clerk Melanie Falk in an outdoor city council session that was brought to order by the Macomb Police Department Honor Guard.
Then the chief s uncle, Lonnie Jones, a 30-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department, took the podium. He spoke about his father, the grandfather of Jerel Jones. His grandfather was a Chicago police officer for 30 years, Lonnie Jones said. We re a police family. The uncle then presented Chief Jones with materials that had been given to his grandfather during his police career.