The Michigan Daily sat down with Crystal James, the University of Michigan police chief, Friday afternoon to discuss her recent appointment, her goals for the department and how her prior experience and inspirations have prepared her for the role. The Daily provided James with the questions prior to the interview. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The Michigan Daily: Why did you choose to accept the position of police chief at the University of Michigan?
Crystal James: I’ve been within the University for more than 30 years, so it was not a difficult decision to accept the position because first off, it’s the University of Michigan. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best university in our country. I spent half of my lifetime here, so it was a very easy decision to make. I love the students. I love the campus environment and being able to compare to when I first started in law enforcement at a police department, working for Detroit was a lot different. When you come here and you’re meeting and greeting all the students on campus, all the faculty and staff, how can you not accept the position? So it was just something that was rewarding. I am in the same space of service, and so it was just a really, really good fit. I know the University. I’ve been here for a long period of time, so it was a very easy decision to make.
TMD: How does it feel to be the first Black woman police chief at the University?
CJ: I get that question a lot, but the biggest thing for me is, it’s an awesome feeling. It’s a privilege and it’s an honor for me to have been selected to be the first woman that happens to be Black. The door is open now. It’s very important to me that I set an example for whoever comes behind me, whether it’s a man or a woman, that I set an example they can follow and hope that will help them when they take the position whenever I decide to retire. It is just a privilege and an honor. My main goal is just always to make sure that our campus community is safe.
TMD: What are your main goals for the department under your tenure?
CJ: One of my main focuses right now is to keep moving forward on the existing bridges that we have in our campus community and enhance those good partnerships that we already have. I also want to be able to make a difference in maybe those individuals who don’t even know the U-M Department of Safety and Security, who are not familiar with the police department or someone who’s maybe experienced a negative impact by a law enforcement agency, not necessarily the University of Michigan Police Department. My main focus is just to try to engage more with our campus community and to remind people that DPSS is here for service. It’s all about the community and the people and the engagement and showing people that I’m approachable. It certainly takes partnership to be able to do well here, at really any university, but to be able to do well and be able to make an impact. It’s not something that I can do on my own.
TMD: What changes do you plan to make to the UMPD or the community as a whole?
CJ: I will be honest with you and tell you right this very minute, I do not have any plans to make any changes right now. What I am doing is basically assessing because you don’t want to make changes without a chance to talk to people because sometimes changes may be needed. You want to make sure you make contact with community members and see what they’re saying because you learn some things that may be going on now that I don’t even know about. If you take your time, do some assessment, get out in the community and have conversations, that will guide me. I can say, “Well, it sounds like we may need to kind of make a change here,” or maybe create some type of committee within the community or within a certain department. Right now, I’m just in the assessment part of it. I’m just trying to get out and about and meet people and talk and see where the need may be.
TMD: What kinds of things are you hearing in your assessment of the community?
CJ: We’re having quite a bit of protests here on campus and to some people that’s concerning. The University has a long history of supporting freedom of speech, but it’s concerning to some people. Our goal for DPSS is to make sure that people are safe, whether they are protesting, rallying or whatever that is as long as it’s in line with well-being, it’s lawful and following whatever University policy. Our main goal is never about us. We just want to make sure people are safe. So if people are marching in the street, which is something we don’t necessarily want people to do — if they decide to do that — we will monitor the traffic and make sure they’re safe when they do that.
TMD: How do you plan to manage and improve crime prevention efforts across campus?
CJ: Crime prevention is something that is ongoing. I think every university struggles with it, even the city police deal with crime prevention. I think the biggest thing is education. Education is key because we need our students, our staff and our faculty to understand to be mindful, not to leave your purse unattended, don’t leave your laptop unattended. If you see something, say something. Crime prevention really is a job for everybody here in the campus community. A larceny, which is one of the main crimes that we have on campus, is a crime of opportunity. If you lay your laptop somewhere and you leave it unattended, there are people out and about that will see it and just take it. That’s really the goal, to just keep educating, keep talking about it. It takes time. We may be coming up with some new programs, but it takes time to get something like that to develop.
TMD: How do you feel serving as deputy chief on the University of Michigan-Dearborn campus has prepared you to take on this role?
CJ: I was already here at the Ann Arbor campus for many, many years. I went to Dearborn for just a couple of years to support the new chief they had there. Dearborn’s campus is a lot smaller. In my mind, you’re still dealing with students, faculty and staff, and then in Ann Arbor, it’s on a bigger scale, and you have more things that are going on here in the city of Ann Arbor, but it’s really the same thing. It’s supporting and it’s educating, and it’s getting to know the community and feeling comfortable and having contact with the community.
I really didn’t take anything from Dearborn as far as to be able to bring that back to Ann Arbor with me, because I kind of already had it before I went to the city of Dearborn. But it was really an honor for me to be able to work on the Dearborn campus, even though it was just a couple of years. The faculty, staff and students there were just great, very engaging, and because the campus is a lot smaller, it’s a lot easier to be able to talk to more people because the campus is so small.
TMD: It sounds like your heart’s in Ann Arbor. Is this true?
CJ: Yeah. When I started in Ann Arbor, I started here as a police officer. It was really an eye-opener for me because I was coming from the city of Detroit. I came here, it was totally different from working for city police, and I was like “Wow.” As I went on, I realized what interested me was the students. Even though I wasn’t a professor or lecturer, I felt I still had a role in helping that student get to the ultimate success of graduating from the University, even though I was kind of in the background. If somebody might have been struggling, maybe having some mental health problems, or somebody may have gotten a laptop stolen, or someone who may have made a bad decision, the world wasn’t over because you made a bad decision. You can get past this. Just being able to talk to the students and let them know there are choices, and while you may have made a bad choice, it’s OK, you can get beyond that and still graduate and have a great life.
TMD: Why did you choose to become a police officer? What challenges did you face moving from Detroit to Ann Arbor?
CJ: All the jobs that I’ve had, from the time I started working, were in a space of service. I used to work in a bank and I started off as a bank teller, and then I moved up to a savings counselor at that particular branch. And that was it. There was nowhere else to go. And so I wanted to do something more, provide more for my family, but also do something that was a part of service to the community. And so my boyfriend, who I’m now married to, he said, “What do you think about going into law enforcement? The Detroit Police Department is hiring.” I had never had any thoughts about being in law enforcement at all, but the thing about me is I love people, and it was about service.
The service part comes from my background, just basically how I was raised, and so I ended up going to Detroit, getting hired by the Detroit Police Department and going through the academy. Even though I leaped into that, it turned out to be a really good fit for me because it allowed me to be able to do the service part of it, to be able to help people who were in need, and it helped provide more for my family. When I started college, I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. Some people grow up and say, “I know I’ve been wanting to be a doctor since I was a child.” That wasn’t me, and so law enforcement turned out to be a good fit. It had everything that I wanted to do in life. I ended up here because Detroit laid me off. They laid off several hundred officers. I ended up here at the University, and it was an even better fit just because of the campus community, campus environment and the ability to help students, faculty and staff.
TMD: In an interview with The University Record, you mentioned that other “strong women” on campus, like Mary Sue Coleman and E. Royster Harper, inspired you through their connections with the U-M community. How do you plan to continue their legacy?
CJ: I’m not necessarily looking to continue their legacy. Though I’m not prepared to talk about my legacy, I’m just too young, I will tell you this: Those ladies set a wonderful example for not only me to follow, but anybody, male or female, to follow. That example was that they were always professional. When I saw them, they were always caring and supportive and able to make those tough decisions. That sometimes is difficult to do, sometimes even as a woman, because when you’re in law enforcement, when you’re in a leadership position and you’re a woman, sometimes there’s a thought that some people in the world may not take you seriously. They were able to stand the test of time and make those tough decisions but also meet and greet with you as if you were like a friend next door, like they’ve known you all their lives. That’s some of the things that I appreciated and that is something that I’m going to always try to do. While I am the chief of police, I am also a human being, and I just want people to be comfortable engaging with me.
TMD: Is there anything else you want to add?
CJ: I guess I would just say it’s an honor to be here at the University of Michigan. I’ve been here since I started in 1992, so I’ve been here forever. Our main goal of DPSS is for people to be safe, feel safe and know that we’re here to help and support. We want our students to be successful and we want faculty and staff to know we’re here to support and do what we can to help. That’s basically me. What you see is who I am — very approachable and just want to do a good job and make people feel comfortable.
Daily Staff Reporters Emma Spring and Marissa Corsi can be reached at sprinemm@umich.edu and macorsi@umich.edu.