Aurora's 1st female police chief to retire after 30 years with department
AURORA, Ill. (WLS) -- Aurora's police chief is stepping down.
Chief Kristen Ziman announced Monday that she will be retiring after 30 years with the department.
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"I started as a police cadet in 1991, so I have grown up (both literally and figuratively) in the police department. I never imagined that one day I would have the privilege of serving as the 41st police chief of the Aurora Police Department," she said in a statement.
Among being the city's 1st female police chief, she also led the city through the mass shooting at the Henry Pratt company in 2019.
"My career has been a journey of peaks and valleys and the worst day of my professional life was the mass shooting where five people were killed, and five of my officers were shot. The second worst day of my career was when a peaceful protest turned violent, and our downtown was looted and burned. Those moments were excruciating, but they made our police department and our community more resilient because iron sharpens iron," she added.
Ziman's last day as chief will be August 6 as she says she moves on to pursue "some new adventures of my own." What that next adventure will be has not yet been determined, according to Ziman.
