Police officers are a vital part of many communities, they keep us safe and help us usually in our greatest time of need. But this is a huge responsibility to have. One that requires a huge amount of honor, bravery and most importantly, respect for others.
A person who exemplifies these qualities is Troy Daniels, the Chief of Police and the Director of Public Safety at Parkland College. He started off his career in the criminal justice field by working at the Champaign Sheriff’s Office, serving there for 10 years. After working there, Daniels moved to the Champaign Police Department and remained there for 24 years before retiring.
Then in April of 2022, Daniels began working at Parkland. Needless to say, Daniels has an abundance of experience that can be seen in his exceptional work at our school and its surrounding communities. From this impressive amount of time in the field, he has formed an opinion around policing, he elaborates, “I believe that the power of policing comes from our Constitution and our people.”
Daniels also explains that because the power of policing is one where officers can use force and take someone’s freedom away it needs to be done “very judiciously and with empathy and compassion”. Daniels concludes this opinion by saying “I’m a very strong believer that police officers should always treat people with dignity and respect to the best degree that they possibly can.”
While giving background on himself, he communicated some details about the Parkland Police force itself. He says all Parkland officers are certified with the Illinois Police, so they have full police powers. Due to this they are “trained on control tactics, firearms, and all legal aspects of being a police officer…” What is interesting about the Parkland Police is that they are trained more than many officers in medical care.
This is because the campus is pretty far away from any hospitals. So, there are officers who will respond to a call with medical bags and start the first aid for those in need while waiting for the paramedics. Daniels goes on to state that the officers at Parkland “…want to provide more service to people, we want to be able to help people more, talk to people more and develop relationships with people more…”
When it comes to the officers’ main goal, he states that they strive to make the college “…a great place to visit, work, and a fun and safe place to go to school.” Overall, an officer is always on campus so help is always here if need be. He gives an example of how he and his officers function by detailing a situation that happened recently.
2024CF001301 is the case number of Malik Judeh, the 19-year-old who recently made threats against Parkland College over social media. Daniels mentions that the FBI notified the Parkland Police and the Champaign Police Department about the threat. Consequently, on September 24, the Champaign Police were dispatched to Parkland’s campus to help the Parkland Police maintain the security of the college. At this time, police went to search Judeh’s Champaign home.
At this point, the Champaign Police Department took over the investigation. At Judeh’s home, they arrested him and moved him to jail. The next day, he was arraigned on his charges of Unlawful Use of a Weapon and Disorderly Conduct. More specifically about disorderly conduct, he was charged under statute 720 5/26-1 (a) (3.5), that being a class 4 felony. He was out of jail the same day, September 25, on pretrial release. Currently, Judeh’s preliminary hearing is set to be on Oct. 30
