Richard Johnson
Police Sergeant Patrols UIC... And Beyond by Sabryna Cornish
Richard T. Johnson loves the fact that his job changes every day. One day he might be fighting a fire or chasing the bad guys.
The next day he might changing a flat tire or finding a lost child's parents.
It's that unpredictability that keeps Johnson happy as a UIC police sergeant.
"Every day, it's a little different," he said.
"You wear so many different hats."
Johnson's father is a longtime administrator at Loyola University - he's currently director of work studies - so the campus environment is a familiar one.
The first UIC officer to win the Watkins Award, he joined the campus police as a patrol officer 10 years ago.
Since then he has tried just about every job in the department, including patrol, investigations, tactical and task force. But his favorite job was patrolling.
"There's more contact with people," he said. "It's more hands-on, so you get to deal with people at different levels."
Because they are state law enforcement officers, UIC police are authorized to carry their weapons and make arrests anywhere in Illinois.
Johnson said he thinks of himself as not just a UIC policeman, but a community police officer.
"We patrol far beyond the boundaries of campus," he said.
He was a member of a joint Chicago-UIC robbery task force started in 1991, when thefts and robberies were escalating on campus.
Since then, thefts and robberies have decreased by more than 70 percent on campus and the surrounding area.
Johnson also apprehended a vagrant who had sexually assaulted a woman on campus in 1998.
He was patrolling along Taylor Street when he noticed a man who fit the suspect's description. The suspect was taken to the police station, where he was identified by the victim.
"Our mission is to make this campus as safe as possible," Johnson said. "We want to be out there providing service to people."
In another incident, Johnson and another officer disarmed an attacker who was stabbing a Chicago police officer in the head and neck.
Johnson also tended to a UIC researcher injured in a science laboratory explosion.
"You need to be innovative and proactive in this job," he said. "That way you get a lot of interaction with faculty and students."
Johnson credits his colleagues and Chief Bruce Lewis - "one of the most progressive, innovative chiefs" - for making the university police department a good place to work.
The sergeant serves on a police committee that addresses campus diversity.
"You need to recognize that different points of view," he said. "That's why our mission is always changing.
"I like to challenge myself and the officers I work with."
One of the most important skills a good officer can have is the ability to communicate, he said, adding that he has never had to shoot his weapon and hopes he never will.
Johnson, whose wide, Linda, is a UIC police investigator, said the Watkins Award is not so much for him as for the entire police force.
"This department is about teamwork," he said. "It was an honor for this department."