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Portraits by Peter Bucks
Tributes to officers from the CPD Officer, Lodge 7 member and renowned artist
‘What I’ve been waiting for’
n BY KAREN STAHL
When John Dellorto tucks into bed at 6 p.m. every night and sets his alarm for 1:50 a.m., he’s acutely aware of a cause that’s much bigger than himself.
As he sits against a pitch- black, early-morning sky, drinking his coffee and read- ing the news, he knows that every labored blink, rous- ing ache and drowsy yawn is all part of the prescription of pride it takes to support his family by wearing Star #10936.
Dellorto is more than your average family man; he’s a titan who devotes his entire livelihood to his blood.
“It’s easy to get up and go to work if you like what you do,” he voiced. “No doubt about it. I couldn’t imagine not having the opportunity to have done this all these years. I don’t know where – what I would’ve done.”
His path prior to coming
on the job more than 26 years
ago was working as main-
tenance staff in a hospital.
While he loved his coworkers,
a more thrilling life with bet-
ter benefits and a greater pur-
pose beckoned him. And just
four weeks into trading his
hospital garb for a uniform at thepoliceacademy,Dellortoclearlyandresolutelysaw his future laid out before him.
“It was exciting,” he relayed, eagerly. “I was young; I knew I’d made the right decision. I said, ‘This is going to be for me. This is what I’ve been waiting for.’”
The law enforcement officer’s decision became a confirmation while he was working tactical right out of the academy – followed by 10 years in plainclothes and three in school patrol on the South Side of Chicago.
With a wife and two young children at home, Dellorto felt his identity as a working father and family-oriented man develop- ing. But his lifestyle held immense difficulties.
“In those early years, I would go to work at 5 o’clock at night until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning,” he relayed. “So my wife
14 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ APRIL 2020
would come home from work and I’d hand the kids off to her and I could go to work with a clear mind.”
After being on a saturation team with nine other officers for two years, Dellorto felt his nerves becoming taut – the tension of being there for his family while working a dream job had always existed, but the pressure to remain safe enough to be able to tuck his son and daughter into bed at night began feeling nearly in- surmountable.
“The police department has been a big part of my life,” he affirmed. “But it’s certainly not the most important part of my life – the most import- ant has always been being able to get home.”
So eight years ago, when a friend sat him down and sug- gested that maybe Dellorto take a step back from the in- tensity of working the streets and, instead, get into prison transport, he heavily weighed the options moving forward.
“You don’t have to be out there so much,’” he recalled his friend saying to him. “So I thought about it and thought about it, and one day just said, ‘OK, I’m going to do it.’ And that was it. That’s what I’ve done ever since.”
Dellorto’s children since have moved out of the house, which makes being at work at 4 a.m. to trans- port inmates to court with Central Detention Unit 171 a little easier. But he still looks forward to the day that he retires and can watch TV on weekends with his wife
during normal hours.
And Dellorto’s son, who is in his final year as an undergrad and
deciding if he wants to go to the academy in May, might become part of his father’s legacy – Dellorto very well might pass the torch to another family-oriented man who drinks coffee at 1:30 a.m. while getting ready for work.
“I couldn’t imagine my life without [being in law enforce- ment],” he maintained. “If you enjoy doing this job, it’s more than just a paycheck to you. It’s a lifestyle.”
JOHN DELLORTO
Star #10936