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Assistant chief likely to become next Davenport Police Chief

Less than a week after announcing the resignation of the police chief, the Davenport City Administrator said he had chosen the likely successor.
Donald Schaeffer

Less than a week after announcing the resignation of the police chief, the Davenport City Administrator said he had chosen the likely successor.

After six years as Davenport Police Chief, Frank Donchez accepted the position as Chief of Police in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas.

Davenport had “multiple internal candidates who I expect to be highly competitive in a national search for his replacement,” Davenport City Administrator Craig Malin said as he announced Donchez’s resignation September 19, 2014.

Malin later said he intended to appoint Major Don Schaeffer, Assistant Police Chief, to the position, according to a September 23 statement on the city’s website. Schaeffer would serve until July 31, 2015, which is the date Iowa law would require him to retire from municipal police work.

“Major Schaeffer has devoted 43 years of service to the Davenport Police Department.  That he may retire as Chief of Police would be an appropriate honoring of those many years of service.  Pending the appropriate procedural steps, I would be pleased to make the appointment on behalf of a grateful community,” Malin said in the statement.

Meanwhile, Malin intended to initiate a national search in March 2015 to find a police chief to lead the Davenport Police Department as of August 1.

“That open, national search will include stakeholders and community members in the full interview process, as is customarily the case in Davenport,” the city statement said.

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