Lorain Auxiliary Police Chief Jim Malick retires

LORAIN — Jim Malick cultivated a legacy with the Lorain Auxiliary Police department. But after 48 years there, 25 of those as chief, he has a new legacy to uphold: Grandfather. Lorain police and auxiliary officers, officials and Malick's family and friends filled City Hall on Thursday evening to celebrate the chief's retirement and swear in his successor, Steve Hernandez. "Steve has big shoes to fill," Police Chief Jim McCann said Thursday evening. Mayor Jack Bradley agreed. While he has only worked with Malick for about five years, he recognized how well-respected the retiring chief is in the city. "They manage all the events that happen in our city and they're just good ambassadors for our city — and I think that was instilled in them by Chief Malick," Bradley said. "... They go extra over and above to give back to the city and the citizens of Lorain and we should never forget that. Chief, what you've done for our city is above and beyond the call of duty." Lorain Auxiliary Police officers handle traffic and crowd control for events or at crime scenes and serve as security in City Hall. For Malick, retiring was a decision he made about 10 weeks ago — but for the past month he has had the opportunity to see what it would be like, as Hernandez and other auxiliary officers started taking over. "That's kind of the good news, the bad news is I'm not going too far: I still work full-time in the water department, so I'll be around to assist these guys," he said. He said the reason he gave up the auxiliary role was his three grandchildren, 18-month-old Ellison, 3-year-old Colton and 6-year-old Dalton Malick. He said a couple months ago he was visiting his son, Christopher, and was carrying Ellison around the house when he got a call from Lorain County 911 requesting auxiliary officers. He continued to carry Ellison around with him while on that 20-minute phone call he said, but realized the auxiliary work was starting to cut into his personal life. "I really love what I did with the auxiliary, it was fun. It's so interesting, police work," he said, adding he was able to satisfy his innterest in construction and background in civil engineering by working for the city. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.