East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert's approach to naming a new deputy chief Friday night was less than conventional.

He surprised Capt. Juli Liebler at a regular police briefing when he announced she would be adding the title to the long list of positions she's held during her 19 years with the department.

"I brought her up in front of about 30 police officers and started going through her résumé. I'm sure she was embarrassed and wondering what the heck I was doing," Wibert said. "I handed her a new badge. She had no idea it was coming."

Liebler said she's still letting the surprise news sink in.

"It happened so fast," she said. "He asked me to come forward and the next thing I know, I'm reading the oath of office for deputy chief."

Past positions Liebler has held include officer, undercover narcotics officer, sergeant and police lieutenant, but she is the first female deputy chief for the department.

"If I'm helping change this to what the norm is then that is great, but I just like to see the best person for the job," she said. "There are a lot of great people who work here, and many are women, but I don't think gender should really matter."

She started working with the department in 1987 as a parking-enforcement officer.

The East Lansing Police Department had eliminated the deputy chief position last year because of budget constraints, but Wibert said they reinstated it to ease some of his responsibilities.

Wibert said the department "re-prioritized" because two people were handling the work of three.

"As the chief with no deputy chief, I am being spread way too thin," Wibert said in an e-mail. "This will give me time to do justice to the projects that I'm involved in."

The deputy chief is the second-ranking sworn officer in command in the police department. Liebler will be responsible to speak and act with the authority of the chief when he is absent, but her tasks have yet to be determined, Wibert said.

"You always aspire to grow and move to the next level, and I didn't even know this was up for grabs," Liebler said. "I feel honored."

Her duties as deputy chief have yet to take effect. She will continue to perform the administrative tasks she's had for six years as captain until someone is hired to fill that position.

Liebler and Wibert have worked closely in the past as well. Wibert was Liebler's training officer when she started as a police officer in 1989.

"She's a hard worker, very well-spoken," he said. "She's the type of person when you ask her to do something you don't have to worry about it getting done."

Liebler holds degrees from Lansing Community College, MSU, Western Michigan University and the FBI National Academy in Quantico, Va.

Liebler said she hopes to streamline several projects within the department, which include how paperwork is handled and getting new equipment for officers, and strengthening the relationship between students and permanent residents in East Lansing.

Liebler, a native of Caro, has a son, Julian, 1, and lives in East Lansing.