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 [...]
UIPD joins with NAACP of Champaign County to adopt shared principles
URBANA, Ill. – The University of Illinois Police Department and the NAACP Champaign County Branch will exhibit a set of shared principles designed to build trust between police and communities of color. The ceremony will take place on Aug. 15 at 2 p.m. at the University of Illinois Police Department, 1110 W. Springfield Ave., Urbana. The University of Illinois Police Department in 2018 adopted the shared principles developed by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and the NAACP State Conference. Now, UIPD and the Champaign County NAACP will hold a joint ceremony to reinforce their importance. The shared principles [...]
UIPD officers undergo immersive active shooter training
URBANA, Ill. – Every University of Illinois Police officer will have trained in the national standard for active shooter response by the beginning of the 2019 school year. This week and next, everyone from the police chief and command staff to new recruits, detectives and crime prevention officers will undergo Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT), widely recognized as one of the best research-based trainings available to police. The University of Illinois Police Department has been planning since January 2019 to attend the training. “It is unfortunate that the reality of the country we live in forces us to [...]