Page 34 - May 2017 Newsletter

Kevin Graham was sworn in on April 12 as the new president of Chicago FOP Lodge 7.
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spent in a beat car in the Chicago suburbs. He has served the Lodge in its closest-to-the-members form: as a unit representative. From 2013 through 2016, he served as the first vice president for Illinois State FOP, which touches on why Graham emerged as the right candidate for this job. He had the experience. He had the desire. And members apparently sensed as much.
“I thought this guy had the knowledge and the strate- gy and most sincerely wanted to fight for the members, so I went with him,” discloses newly elected Second Vice President Martin Preib, who ran with the Blue Voice ticket Graham led. “He wants to improve working conditions, and he definitely has the skills to do so.”
Newly elected First Vice President Pat Murray did not run on the ticket with Graham. But with his 28 years on the beat, he is well qualified to assess why Graham is the best person to lead Lodge 7 through perhaps its most crit- ical period ever.
“He’s a hands-on guy, and I think his knowledge from working with the state lodge gives him an idea of how different issues need to be addressed, such as the new contract,” Murray notes. “And I think the membership is asking for a leader who is going to speak up on different issues.”
Superintendent Eddie Johnson indicated he believes Graham will speak up in a manner that will create a fruit-
34 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MAY 2017
ful relationship between Lodge 7 and the Department. He sees several reasons why the Lodge and the Department might take different paths, but with Graham at the helm it will lead to working together to get to the same end.
“I have to be honest and tell you I’m very optimistic about Kevin and the direction he wants to take FOP, be- cause at the end of the day I’m a beat cop, too,” Johnson observes. “I think in his heart, he loves the rank-and-file. I don’t think he’s in it for him. He’s in it for the rank-and- file, and that’s a good thing.”
A couple of those rank-and-file members – two tac of- ficers, actually – had just come off their shift and were having lunch at a restaurant near the FOP offices recent- ly when they saw a Lodge 7 staffer. One of them asked, “What do you know about the new president? We hear he is a beat cop.”
But if there is one remaining question about Graham’s ascension to Lodge 7 President, there is also one resound- ing answer. And to be sure, Graham has asked himself that question on many occasions, some of those even af- ter he was elected.
“Why me?” he acknowledges. “From the perspective of being a beat cop, I didn’t feel I was being heard and nei- ther were any of the people I worked with. Somebody had to step up to do the job. I’m not casting stones on anybody else. The person who sat in the president’s spot needed to be a police officer who worked every day in the district.”