Jill Lees, deputy chief of support at the Plainfield Police Department, has been appointed as the ninth chief of police of the Indiana University Police Department-Bloomington, IU Bloomington Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel and Associate Vice President for Public Safety and Institutional Assurance Benjamin Hunter have announced.
“I definitely am very excited for this opportunity, however I’ve served Plainfield for almost 24 years and all the relationships I’ve formed and all the people I’ve worked with over the years are family to me,” Lees said. So it will definitely be sad because I’ll miss all those folks. But I’m so excited to go back to where I started in law enforcement as chief of police and work with a new department and new officers and help IUPD be the best that it can be.”
Lees is a graduate of the Indiana University Police Academy. When she assumes her new role at IUPD-Bloomington on March 4, she will lead a department with 45 full-time sworn officers who protect IU’s flagship campus — which has a daytime population of almost 53,000 — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Chief Lees has an impressive record working with individuals to advance community-oriented policing in Plainfield,” Hunter said. “Our students, staff and faculty on the Bloomington campus will benefit from her commitment to transparency, open-dialogue and clear communication. Her experience and forward-thinking leadership skills make her an outstanding fit for this important position.”
Lees succeeds Chief Laury Flint, who is taking on university-wide IUPD responsibilities involving community engagement and risk assessment, a critical component of campus safety.
Lees graduated from the IU Police Academy in 1994 and began her career at the Plainfield Police Department just a week after graduating from IU. Throughout her years in Plainfield, she worked in almost every area of the department, most recently as deputy chief of support, which includes the support services and criminal investigations branches. She has been deeply involved in her own leadership development as well as accreditation efforts at the department and at other police departments, where she conducted assessments for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.
“I am humbled and honored to have been selected as the police chief of IUPD’s Bloomington division,” Lees said. “I started my law enforcement career here as a cadet officer and am so excited to be able to come back to serve where I began. My years in law enforcement have helped prepare me for the next chapter, and I am looking forward to this amazing opportunity.”