Ella French | Artwork

Fallen Chicago police officer Ella French is memorialized in a slightly larger-than-life bronze statue at Wentworth Park in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood. The statue, a gift of Chicago City Council members Marty Quinn and Silvana Tabares, the Midway Chamber of Commerce, Garfield Ridge Neighborhood Watch and the Fraternal Order of Police, was unveiled to the public August 31, 2025, on what would have been French's 34th birthday.

French was described as a charismatic officer with a love of animals, especially dogs. She was fatally shot in a traffic stop in 2021. Her legacy has also been celebrated in other ways, including an honorary street designation, a depiction in a local mural and a non-profit founded by her family to support on-duty police officers. The statue installation was the result of a community-driven process and, as a figural sculpture of a woman, adds to the diversity of the district's statuary. The final design, featuring French kneeling with an arm around a dog, was selected by her mother.

The statue was the work of Woodstock, IL-based artist Erick Blome, whose work is displayed in public spaces around the country, depicting figures such as Thurgood Marshall here in Chicago and elsewhere, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, and even hockey great Wayne Gretzky.