By Jessica Steeley
East Lansing Police Chief Juli Liebler, who has been with the police department since 1987, will be retiring at the end of the month.
Liebler first joined the ELPD in 1987 as a part-time parking enforcement officer. She joined the force full-time in 1988, and eventually became deputy chief in 2006.
After her five-year tenure as East Lansing’s police chief, Juli Liebler will be retiring to spend more time with her family and finish her dissertation.
“It’s a loss to the police department,” East Lansing City Manager George Lahanas said, “she is a dedicated, hard-working employee.”
Lahanas said the department functions well and has done an excellent job safe-guarding the community under Liebler’s leadership.
After 28 years of protecting the community, Liebler said she has added her own personal touch to the department as police chief , and is able to showcase her accomplishments.
“She…had to rebuild the department,” ELPD Lieutenant Larry Sparkes said, adding when Liebler came into office many people had just retired and she was able to hire many new officers. “It’s not an easy task, for sure, so, I would count that as a major accomplishment during her time,” Sparkes said.
Aside from new hires, Liebler said the department has also reinstituted the neighborhood watch program.
“We started with two officers and now were up to over twenty officers that are assigned to different neighborhoods within the community,” Liebler said, adding the program helps citizens have someone to directly communicate with.
Sparkes said he and Liebler have worked together for 28 years and describes her as hard-working, fair, with a positive attitude infectious to the rest of the department.
Though Liebler has no say in who will take over as police chief, she said patience is the key to succeeding, along with understanding and balancing the differing perspectives of the students and permanent residents within East Lansing.
Lahanas said more information will not be released until next week, but Liebler and Sparkes have their own opinions of who should take up the title.
“Deputy Chief Jeff Murphy…I think he’s a great candidate for the job,” Liebler said. Sparkes agrees. He said Murphy is excellent, easy to work with, and has been there as long as Liebler has.
Sparkes said Murphy is well-versed in how the department operates, due to the fact he’s worked in many parts of the department, such as the detective bureau, the tactical unit, and road patrol.
“With his leadership the department wouldn’t skip a beat,” Sparkes said. “It’s bittersweet, you have one person that’s leaving here…you wish them the best but then I think you look for the deputy chief, the second in command to take over.”
Sparkes said officers respect leaders who started within the system and worked their way up, something both Liebler and Murphy have done, which is why he thinks the officers look forward to having Murphy hopefully step up into the police chief position.
Liebler will step down at the end of June and more information about the process of hiring her predecessor will be released next week.
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