Chat with Chief Stone: Community Police Academy
The University of Illinois Police Department is here to keep you safe, and it provides a number of different services that can help you while you are on campus. This month, we’re speaking with Executive Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police Craig Stone about the Community Police Academy, which is a free program open to all students to learn more about the police department and how they can keep themselves safe. What is the Community Police Academy? We started the Community Police Academy last year to help better connect students, faculty, and staff with the police department that [...]
Public invited to ceremony for two promotion recipients
URBANA, Ill. — All are invited to attend a promotion and pinning ceremony on Friday, Sept. 6, for Rachael Ahart and Matt Ballinger, whose new ranks are a reflection of their hard work in keeping our community safe. The ceremony will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, at the University of Illinois Police Department, 1110 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana. All are welcome to attend. Sgt. Ahart began her new role as a supervisor July 30. Previously, she worked as a detective and as part of the department’s Special Victims Unit, which is specially trained to investigate crimes [...]
Three officers graduate from police academy
URBANA, Ill. — The University of Illinois Police Department is welcoming three new police officers who graduated from the police academy Thursday. Officers Mohamed Alsaqri, Michael Mitrou and Christopher Williams graduated on Thursday from the University of Illinois Police Training Institute. On Monday, they will begin the field training process, during which they will be paired with training officers who will spend several months helping them to further refine their skills and abilities. Officer Alsaqri is a Champaign resident who previously worked as a substitute teacher at Unit 4 schools. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [...]
Road closures to affect Kirby Avenue, First Street
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The University of Illinois Police Department is advising travelers that road closures near State Farm Center and Memorial Stadium will affect traffic Thursday evening and Friday morning. Between 8-9 p.m. Thursday, students will be crossing Kirby Avenue between First and Fourth streets to attend programming at State Farm Center. Police officers will be on hand to assist students who are crossing and may need to close the road entirely if crowd sizes are significant. At 9:30 a.m. Friday, motorists should expect Kirby Avenue to be closed between First and Fourth streets to accommodate thousands of students crossing [...]
UIPD reminds about scams heading into new semester
URBANA, Ill. – In advance of the new semester, the University of Illinois Police Department is reminding students to be mindful that scammers may try to fool them by phone or online. Scams continue to be prevalent on college campuses everywhere, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is no exception. A number of recent scams involve telephone callers in which the caller claims to be a police officer or other government representative, and the victim may even be threatened with arrest. The reminder comes soon after a U. of I. employee was scammed out of about $69,000 after a [...]