By Josh Bootsma
LANSING, Ill. (January 11, 2022) – The Lansing Police Department promoted three of its own on Tuesday, a week after four new officers were hired by the department.
Promotions
Scott Bailey
Scott Bailey is now a Deputy Chief at LPD, moving into the role after serving as Detective Lieutenant.
“Scott has held just about every position here at the PD and there could not be a more deserving person. His leadership skills and strong work ethic made him an obvious choice for the position,” said an LPD Facebook post Tuesday announcing the promotions.
Bailey steps into the role after Deputy Chief Rick Slough’s retirement last month. Lansing’s PD currently has two Deputy Chief positions, and Bailey is taking over the Field Operations position, meaning he will oversee the department’s detectives and all patrol operations.
Steve Roberts is the other Deputy Chief in the department, and oversees Support Services.
Moving into Bailey’s former position as Detective Lieutenant is Mike Hynek, formerly a patrol Lieutenant.
Mike Lazowski
Mike Lazowski was the second promotion, as the former Sergeant has now moved into a position as a patrol Lieutenant. With four 12-hour patrol shifts, LPD has four patrol Lieutenants, each in charge of their own shift, and one of whom is now Lazowski.
Third promotion
The third promotion with the LPD on Tuesday was that of an officer involved in the Department’s Tactical Team, a small unit that uses targeted policing efforts to curb illegal drug and gun sales, and prostitution. Because of the sensitive nature of the role, which sometimes requires officers to go undercover, Police Chief Al Phillips declined to provide a name or photo of the officer.
“We’re creating a new TAC Sergeant,” Phillips said of the promoted officer. “He’s going to be running our new TAC team. … We’re going to be running two two-man teams, and he’ll be in charge of them. He’ll be a working sergeant, managing what they do but also out there working [himself].”
New hires
Last week, LPD welcomed four new officers to its ranks: Miguel Medina-Bravo, Louis Delcoiro, Christian Hernandez, and Guillermo Galarza.
“We have a great deal of support and trust in our community. We will challenge them to build on it,” said an LPD Facebook post introducing the new officers.
With each of the new hires entering the Department with different levels of experience, and some coming from out of state, each has a different training timeline before hitting the streets of Lansing.
Staff fluctuations
With many officers retiring in the last couple of years, LPD has made efforts to stay near its fully-staffed number of 62 officers. With the hire of the four new officers, the Department’s number is now at 56.
Chief Phillips said he anticipates a handful of additional retirements this year as well, but praised the Village’s lateral hiring policy, established in September of 2021, for allowing LPD to hire experienced officers.
“We have 12 laterals working right now and every one of them we’re completely pleased with,” he said.
The Lansing Police Department is located at 2710 170th Street.
Related
- Lansing Police hopes to draw experienced officers with new lateral hiring policy (October 23, 2021)
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Deputy Chief Rick Slough retires after holding every rank at LPD (December 9, 2022)
