After a month on the job, the new chief of police for Lincoln University said he's getting a lot of support from students and faculty, as well as the community.
Gary Hill, a graduate of Lincoln, is filling the position Bill Nelson held when he retired from the school earlier this year.
"I still get to teach, which is important. This coming semester it's forensic science," Hill said. "The teaching aspect helps because it allows me to create a bond with the students. A lot of my students have ended up being interns at the sheriff's office and later got hired at the police department and FBI."
Hill has taught in Lincoln's criminal justice department since 2011.
"I think it helps them to see real people, and then they feel they can really do this - they just needed someone to point them in the right direction," he said. "It's vital to get them when they're young because as they get older they become more set in their ways. If you can get them from 17-19 you can help mold them a little bit better. You can help them see that the stigma about our profession that has been portrayed in the media is not there."
Hill served on the Cole County Sheriff's Department for nearly two decades. In August, he ran in the Republican primary for sheriff and lost to Capt. John Wheeler, the department's chief deputy, who faced no opposition in the November general election.
Although he could have stayed on as chief deputy with the department, Hill accepted the position at Lincoln knowing it would be a rebuilding process.
"The biggest area to address is our policy and procedures, including how we use our body cameras," Hill said. "They probably haven't been looked at in 10 years. I'm also looking at other colleges and their police departments and seeing if anything they're doing could work for us."
Training is another area of focus.
"Our officers don't get real life experience training, although everything we handle on campus is what police, sheriff's deputies and highway patrol officers handle," Hill said. "I have a great relationship with John (Wheeler), and I think of him as my brother. Because of that, a lot of my guys will do training with the sheriff's department when school is not in session."
Hill said the department also needs better facilities, as it has outgrown its current location next to Dwight T. Reed Stadium.
"The university is looking to let us to move into Leslie Plaza, and renovating that would help in recruiting new officers," he said. "We currently have 13 sworn officers on the department and six civilian employees. We're still figuring the cost out and if we can afford the move."
Hill said many of the problems they run into when called out involve people who have no affiliation with the university.
"They may have a family member or a friend who goes here, but they themselves have no connection," he said. "Don't get me wrong, we have had some troublemakers going to classes, but for the most part they are just trying to be decent students."
Although he said it was hard to leave the sheriff's department, the community support makes him feel like he made the right choice.
"I have had people I don't even know come up to me and say they are glad I chose Lincoln, and that goes to say a lot about our town," he said. "It's good people supporting good people."