'It's been a whirlwind': U of I police chief talks first year, future of department

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WAND) - The University of Illinois police chief took time to reflect on her first year with the department and what she wants to see happen in the future. 

Chief Alice Cary called a busy 12 months, which involved dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, a "whirlwind." 

"I moved during the pandemic and hit the ground running when I got here," she said in an interview posted to the U of I Police website. "The pandemic has been a huge challenge. It’s been a huge challenge to protect not only the community, but also our employees at Public Safety." 

Along with pressing public health needs, Cary said department efforts based on community feedback have been "huge highlights."

Cary has been responsible for introducing a new campus resource called the Community Outreach and Support Team (C.O.A.S.T.), which has the job of building new relationships with campus community members and supporting the well-being of students, faculty and staff. Among other methods, C.O.A.S.T. looks to meet this goal with an initiative called REACH, which pairs social workers with police in a co-responder model to "provide better assessment, evaluation and response during mental health-related emergencies," police said. 

Cary said one thing that influenced REACH being created was the early 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, a crime committed by former officer Derek Chauvin. 

"That made law enforcement agencies across the country stop and reexamine what we do and how we do it," Cary said. "The creation of REACH is one of the answers in terms of how police respond – or really, minimizing the way we respond – to crisis in and around our community. Police are the first responders to mental health issues. Listening to feedback about how we address use of force and how we address those issues that we are responding to, even though they are non-law enforcement related, that’s something we take into consideration when we are trying to effect positive reform in law enforcement."

There have been calls for change nationally regarding policing after Floyd's murder. Cary said those efforts "have been heard very loudly," adding her department is "enthusiastic" about working with the community to "move forward in a way that works for everybody". She stressed this can take time. 

"UIPD has a very good foundation. Typically, university police departments tend to be more progressive in their policies, training and practices," Cary said. "A lot of the calls for action we’ve been hearing across the country in terms of policy changes, and looking at the new state law on police reform – UIPD is in a very good place because what we were doing was already consistent with a lot of those things that are being asked of police departments across the country."

The chief said police are always looking to improve and have been reviewing policies. According to her, police will be "a lot more active" in the coming semesters in talking to students and others about what they would like to see. 

"We ultimately serve them," Cary said. "The key to hearing is listening, and we're going to be doing a lot of active listening." 

Cary also addressed gun violence and what students should expect to see when they arrive on campus in the fall of 2021. She mentioned REACH as a something that is available to students, along with therapy K-9s. U of I police have four of them, including Archie, Lollipop, Rosie and Winston.

Should a student want to see a therapy dog, a request form is available here.