Wednesday morning, Staton announced Liebler would take the position effective immediately.
“I was very excited and very happy when I found out,” Liebler said. “I don’t think it’s completely set in yet, (but) I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Liebler said the former police chief, Tom Wibert, left a large pair of shoes for her to fill, and she feels honored to have such an opportunity.

Liebler served as the department’s deputy chief from 2006 until October 2010 when Wibert left the department to take the job of police chief in New Braunfels, Texas. She was appointed interim police chief when Wibert left.

Staton said the city began accepting applications for the position a few days before the first of the year and accepted them until the end of January.

Before looking at all the applications, Staton met with community members and student groups to outline what they were looking for from their next police chief.

“All (the applicants) were analyzed against the profile that we established after talking to police employees, student groups and community members,” he said. “We followed the profile pretty closely, and the (applicant) with the closest match was Juli Liebler.”

Staton said a major factor for many student groups and community members stressed was for the police chief to have experience working in a college town and being in a college environment.

Liebler has worked in East Lansing for her entire 23-year career, and she attended MSU for her bachelor’s degree in parks and recreation resources and currently is pursuing her Ph.D. in criminal justice at MSU.

Liebler said she has experience working with student groups and teaches a class at MSU, so she feels she will be open and available to the student body.

“I will continue my involvement,” she said. “I will meet with student groups and nonstudent groups in the community to see what they want from their police department.”

Some students, such as biochemistry and molecular biology senior John Stein, feel it is important for the police chief of a college town to be strict yet understanding.

Stein said because MSU makes up such a significant portion of the city, it is important to pay more attention to student needs as well as student discrepancies.

“The stigma of being associated with a party school is very negative,” he said. “But it’s also nice when a police chief understands that we are students and we sometimes party on the weekends.”