CHAMPAIGN — Timothy Tyler grew up in Hazlehurst, Miss., a city of fewer than 4,000 folks. It’s the place he fished and hunted together with his dad and grandpa — the place, “if there was a funeral, everybody pulled over and stopped by for the procession.”
It’s the place a teenage Tyler had his path set out for him by his first law-enforcement mentor: Al Farrish, a neighborhood state trooper who took the younger man underneath his wing.
“He truly instructed me, ‘You’re going to hitch the navy police,’” Tyler stated. “I’ve had some nice function fashions in my life; I’ve tried to not allow them to down.”
By 2017, Tyler was a lieutenant colonel within the Army and a captain for the Illinois State Police. He returned to Hazlehurst and visited the mentor he hadn’t seen in 20 years.
“I took him each of my IDs and stated, ‘Hey Mr. Farrish, I did precisely what you instructed me to do.’ And we each began crying,” Tyler stated.
Now, Tyler’s about so as to add one other title to the listing: Champaign police chief.
Virtually eight weeks have handed since Tyler, a 29-year law-enforcement officer and 32-year Army veteran, was chosen to guide the town’s police division.
He’s wrapped up a 23-year profession with the Illinois State Police, and tied up unfastened ends with the Illinois Division of Pure Assets, the place he served as police chief since 2020.
Earlier than he studies for his first official shift Monday, Tyler’s already completed three ride-alongs in Champaign — a day shift, a midnight shift final Friday and a day journey on a Saturday — the place he witnessed officers help the aged, reply to noise complaints and work two home instances, together with a suicidal-ideation name.
“I used to be very pleased with how the cops took their time with the civilians,” Tyler stated. “I’ve been a fly on the wall wanting on the professionalism that’s already in place.”
He’s already obtained his uniform, gear and residence in place — he and his spouse are closing on a Champaign residence within the subsequent couple weeks. All that’s left on his instant guidelines: assembly neighborhood members and discovering a “church residence.”
‘Coachable and moldable’
As Tyler admitted in a Thursday sit-down interview with The News-Gazette, when he first noticed the police-chief opening in November, “I didn’t suppose I used to be ok, so I didn’t apply for it.”
“I’ve had all my police profession in Illinois, and I’ve at all times had the very best regard for the Champaign Police Division,” he stated. “They’re self-managed, they’ve their very own SWAT unit, they’ve their very own CSI, and in the entire Illinois police neighborhood, we all know how good this division is.”
However when the applying deadline was prolonged, Tyler pushed previous his preliminary intimidation. He and Stephanie had been already planning to maneuver to Champaign — they obtained to know the town higher after daughter Timeshia graduated from Parkland Faculty and the College of Illinois. So he requested her, “Do you thoughts if I put in for this?”
“She stated, ‘completely, you’ve stated you’ve at all times wished to go there, and also you stated you’d wish to be a police chief in a university city,’” Tyler recalled. “And God blessed me.”
Tyler prides himself on his flexibility and historical past of public service. As he places it, he’s “snug with being uncomfortable,” and is worked up to remain in a single spot after years on the transfer.
“I’m coachable and moldable — you can also make me an awesome chief, you can also make me a nasty chief, I’m nonetheless being developed, however I’ve a very good blueprint and a historical past on lead organizations,” Tyler stated. “I wouldn’t even dare take any job in management realizing that I haven’t been correctly examined.”
‘No higher management’
Tyler joined the Army at 18. After primary coaching, he was referred to as up for Operation Desert Defend, arriving within the Persian Gulf on Sept. 19, 1990.
He’s a third-generation fight veteran: his grandfather served in World Conflict II, his father and uncles in Vietnam.
As a younger soldier, Tyler did “all sorts of safety missions,” together with defending convoys alongside a predominant provide route throughout the border of Kuwait and Iraq. When Operation Desert Storm started in January 1991, he labored alongside highways for the rest of his time there.
After returning to the U.S., Tyler obtained his first job on the Markham Police Division, close to the Chicago space. It was there, in 1997, he confronted his biggest private {and professional} problem: the lack of his greatest buddy, fellow Markham patrol Officer Sean Laura.
Officer Laura died within the line of obligation; he radioed for backup after a driver he had stopped fled on foot, and a responding patrol automobile struck him.
“Realizing that we misplaced one other policeman right here in Champaign — you by no means recover from it. They’re at all times with you,” Tyler stated, referring to Champaign Officer Chris Oberheim, who was killed in Might 2021 whereas responding to a domestic-violence name.
Tyler’s son, now 21, is called after Officer Laura. He’s a operating again at Western Michigan College.
In 1998, Tyler started his journey with the Illinois State Police, the place he labored a number of positions within the Des Plaines workplace. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than he was referred to as again to the service — following the Sept. 11 terrorist assaults, he went to Afghanistan for a 12 months, this time because the commander of a 133-person navy unit cut up throughout 5 elements of the nation.
“There is no such thing as a higher management than main women and men in fight, and I’m glad to say we had 133 after we left, and we introduced 133 residence,” Tyler stated.
Months after returning residence, Tyler was referred to as to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He labored in a logistics unit, relaying provides to the folks of Belle Chasse, La. He witnessed devastation wrought by Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which upended a lot of the work volunteers had completed.
“I noticed extra destruction in Katrina than I noticed in Afghanistan,” he stated.
Wildlife was displaced and livelihoods had been misplaced, as alligators feasted and water-moccasin snakes littered the world.
“Nobody may ever describe the order of demise,” he stated. “It made me wish to serve extra, as a result of you may’t do sufficient. Folks undergo laborious instances and it’s not their fault. It’s why all of us actually must ask ourselves, ‘What extra can we do to assist one another?’”
Since then, he’s labored a violent-crime unit in Chicago’s West Aspect, a police-assistance staff within the Metro East space, and supervised state police items all throughout Illinois. He served as deputy director of state police and colonel of its Division of Academy and Coaching till November 2020.
‘My door is open’
Essentially the most rewarding moments of his profession as an officer, Tyler stated, weren’t any large arrests. It was all of the instances that children would acknowledge officers who coached their youth soccer and baseball groups, and waved them down throughout neighborhood patrols.
“They’d go, ‘Hey coach!’ We had been simply members of the neighborhood to them,” Tyler stated. “The police and the neighborhood had been one.”
Main a metropolitan police division is a brand new period for Tyler. However he’s already obtained his body of reference locked in to grasp the staff: soccer.
Tyler is the top coach on the sideline. His deputy chiefs are like offensive and defensive coordinators. Group companions are special-teams items.
“That’s how intelligence comes into play in legislation enforcement,” Tyler stated. “We have now to grasp how our opposition works, and watch movie, and we will run performs.”
The brand new chief stated he values officer coaching — he’s been by means of fairly a bit himself — and enter from voices out and in of the division.
“A few of our greatest concepts and our greatest efforts will come from individuals who don’t have anything on their collars,” Tyler stated. “I’m not one who thinks they’re the neatest particular person on the desk — I look ahead to studying from neighborhood members, patrolmen, different cops in the neighborhood, enterprise homeowners.
“I’m the police chief for everybody. My door is open.”
‘The perfect of service’An early focus for Tyler will probably be filling the vacancies on the police division, which have begun to patch up after the town adopted a steady hiring cycle.
“We have now to get again to going to those faculties and going to those navy bases and in addition reaching a special crowd,” Tyler stated. “I like my navy, I like my troopers, I like my Marines. However I really feel like a few of the greatest officers are these cashiers at Walmart or Casey’s.
“They already know the perfect of service; I can train them to be a cop, I can train them run, I can train them shoot.”
Tyler would be the second Black police chief in Champaign’s historical past. His predecessor, nine-plus-year Chief Anthony Cobb, was the primary.
“Individuals are in search of people in management positions to be clever and to have integrity, in order a Black police officer, that’s what I carry to the desk, and that’s what I’ve introduced for 29 years,” Tyler stated.
