Murphy to Serve as Interim ELPD Chief

Photo courtesy City of East Lansing

East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) Deputy Chief Jeff Murphy is set to take over as interim ELPD Chief on June 30, when Chief Juli Liebler retires. Murphy was recently named Interim Chief by City Manager George Lahanas whose job it is to choose the interim and permanent chief.

Murphy has been regularly attending City Council meetings, so I took the opportunity this Tuesday night to speak to him after Council. As a neighborhood leader for Oakwood, I have had a number of opportunities to meet with Liebler and Murphy, including during the prolonged power outage in early 2014 when ELPD had to manage a wide variety of emergency responses.

I asked Murphy Tuesday night about his vision of leadership for ELPD. He said that as interim chief he saw his job as to keep providing the high level of service East Lansing residents expect from ELPD. He said that he was fortunate to have been well-prepared to step in because Liebler has made a point of closely mentoring Murphy for the last three years.

“She’s included me in nearly every decision she’s made” during that period, Murphy told me. “Every time she meets with someone, I’m there if I can be, so she’s really showed me how she runs the police department, setting a good example for me in the future.” He said ordinarily becoming a police chief can be “a huge learning experience,” but that Liebler’s careful mentorship left him feeling much better prepared than he would otherwise be to take on the significant responsibility. He noted that not all police chiefs take such care to steadily prepare colleagues to step in as needed, and he praised Liebler for using this approach for the good of the city.

I asked Murphy if there were any particular challenges he was expecting in the job. He said that looking nationally as well as locally, “we need to work on trust with the public.” He said this would be “my number one priority during the interim period, to work on building public trust in the police department and a big part of that is getting to know the public.”

He said that ELPD officers have found that if people get to know them by name and face, “that goes a long way towards trust.” He said that officers have been taking time to go to neighborhood meetings, ice cream socials, downtown festivals—any event that allows them to get to know residents. He told me, “When something does happen here that is negative, that’s when we need the public the most, to support us, because we can’t do it on our own.”

According to a press release from the City, “During the interim period, the city manager will be assessing internal leadership of the department. Looking back at the recent history of ELPD’s leadership, the last three police chiefs have been internal candidates. City officials do not anticipate conducting a search for ELPD’s new chief at this point.”

According to the press release, “Deputy Chief Jeff Murphy has served with ELPD since February 1987. His hard work and professionalism has led to many promotions and new leadership responsibilities over the years. He has served as a supervisor of the ELPD night shift patrol, accident team, Conflict Management Team, East Lansing Jail, Special Response Team (SRT), Crime Scene Investigation unit, ELPD Detective Bureau and ELPD K9 Unit. He was promoted to sergeant in September 1998, lieutenant in June 2011 (at which time he also became an SRT commander) and captain in July 2012. Earlier this year, Murphy was promoted to his current position as deputy chief.”