CLC’s new chief of police, Brian Henry, is ready and willing for the challenges that come with leading a campus police department.
Chief Henry was born and raised in Waukegan; he spent five semesters as a student at CLC and earned a bachelor’s degree.
Chief Henry became an officer in 2001. He then spent 20 years in Evanston, holding many positions involving the community and leadership.
Chief Henry being sworn in as Chief of Police for CLC. Photo courtesy of CLC Public Relations June 28th, 2021.
“Learning to police in a diverse environment prepared me for coming here to CLC,” he said. According to Henry, the administration role and community policing helped mold him into the officer he is now.
In his first few months at CLC, Henry said that he struggled to learn and understand the police department’s established culture and figure out how to navigate it. “You have officers who have spent 20 to 30 years at another organization,” he said. “So you get a melting pot of cultures. It’s not a bad thing, but it’s different.”
The most significant changes at CLC since his time as a student are “the size, footprint, and modernization of the campus,” said Henry. He is happy that the class size and individualized instruction that helped him focus have stayed the same.
As a result of the various protests that have taken place over the past year and a half, the role of law enforcement in society has been heavily criticized.
“Law enforcement needed to make some changes,” he said. “The criminalization of cannabis is a perfect example. Law enforcement doesn’t always need a punitive arm – enacting change is really what we are looking for.”
According to Henry, COVID-19 has proposed its challenges to the police department.
“It’s really tough to deal with from a law enforcement standpoint,” he said. “We’re going to support the governor, the mandate, and the college. Student success and patience needs to be in the front of everyone’s mind.”
Chief Henry as a member of Evanston Police Department. Photo courtesy of Evanston PD.
Chief Henry has goals in mind for the department.
“[Our] short-term goal is to navigate through COVID … the long term is establishing, growing, and improving relationships with students and faculty that we haven’t in the past,” said Henry. “The police department is part of the college. Sometimes police separate themselves – there is this us versus them mentality. I think that was prevalent a couple [of] years ago, and we have gotten away from it. My goal is to get completely away from that with the CLC police department. ”
Henry also had advice for the students of CLC.
“Never give up; always believe in yourself,” he said. “Never think that something is unattainable. Follow your heart. When you’re [young], and you do poorly on a test, and someone tells you that you’re not going to be able to do this. I say never listen to that or set barriers up for yourself.”
Chief Henry’s ideas for building community between the campus and police department are a breath of fresh air. His experience as a law enforcement officer for 20 years and as a CLC graduate puts him in a perfect position to lead the department to a bigger and brighter future.
