Former Plainfield Police Chaplain Dies After Battle With Cancer

PLAINFIELD, IL — Charlotte "Chere" Bates, a retired chaplain with the Plainfield Police Department and Plainfield Fire Protection District, has died after a battle with cancer, police officials said Wednesday. She was 74.

Bates was a founding member of the Plainfield Police Chaplain Program in 1999, officials said, and dedicated herself to the program until retiring in 2017.

"During her tenure with the police department, Chere volunteered her time, day and night, to the PDD and citizens of the greater Plainfield area," the department wrote on Facebook. "In addition, she also provided chaplain services to the Plainfield Fire District and held various leadership positions with the International Conference of Police Chaplains."

Bates was responsible for ministering to officers and their families, and was often called out for death notifications, suicides and serious auto-accidents. In a 2014 newsletter for the Episcopal Church of St. Benedict in Bolingbook, where she was a deacon, Bates said that the chaplain program began in response to the Columbine school shooting.

"The hardest part of this ministry is telling someone that a loved one has died," she wrote at the time.

After retiring in 2017, Bates moved to Michigan to be closer to her family and joined the chaplain program there with the United States Secret Service.

"Please hold Chere and her family in your hearts as she will be greatly missed," the Plainfield Police Department wrote on Facebook.

Image via Plainfield Police Department