After taking the oath of office in December, Alliance Police Department Chief Philip Lukens hit the ground running, sharing his enthusiasm for taking the reins from former Chief John Kiss on building on his work.
Lukens, who hails from Colorado, said he was inspired to go into law enforcement by his grandfather.
“I started out as a police explorer, and my grandfather was the town marshal in Crook, Colorado,” said Lukens. “It was exciting because when my grandpa would go out on patrol, he brought us home candy bars from the gas station. I just always thought it was so neat that he would put us in the car and take us with him to the gas station. I just felt like this was the greatest thing on the planet.
“I was intrigued as a young teenager by it,” Lukens said. “There was a local police explorer post in Lafayette (Colorado), and I joined that explorer post and really got involved volunteering, helping do things. As a police explorer, you got to go on a ride along with the police officers. Boy, I loved that.”
Lukens explained that rides along were determined by the number of volunteer hours submitted, which is why he volunteered frequently. He tested to become a code-enforcement officer when he was 18. He served in that role until he entered the police academy at 21. Throughout his career since he graduated from the police academy, he received several certifications.
Police work, Lukens noted, is not always easy, which is why he relies on input from the community to help make a difference.
“It’s difficult,” said Lukens. “I can’t tell you how many times I reconsidered what I wanted to do. My biggest thing that I’ve always enjoyed is work environment, community reception and community programs. From all of that, you see success, and it helps you to feel good when you see that the community is doing well, and you’re making an impact. It’s harder when you feel like you’re not even making a difference.”
Lukens explained that he has a vision for the police department moving forward to help grow the ways in which it serves the community by being proactive.
“My overall vision is for us to get to a place where we address the causes of issues instead of running to the calls that are the approximate cause,” Lukens said. “I think you can never, ever stop all of those things from happening. I recognize that. But, I think through educational programs and community partnerships, we can impact how much reactive work we do, and how much proactive work we do.
“Our vision is to be proactive, and law enforcement keeps saying that it’s proactive, but they’re reactive,” said Lukens. “How I want to build on that is we impose so many different problem-solving projects. What is the issue? What is the cause? What is the approximate cause? How can we work that out? When we can address things through other facets and other resources in our community, we can circumvent crime. We need to support all sorts of facets.”
Lukens said he hopes to bolster existing programs, especially concerning youth, to help address issues before they arise. He said the strength of the Alliance Police Department is the staff members who are dedicated to helping their community.
“Our largest strengths are an incredibly good set of committed staff,” said Lukens. “I was excited after getting to know the staff, and in the first few days as I started working, I became more excited because they are very dedicated to serving our community. It’s a tremendous strength. Our officers are excited about the programs and how they can get started. They’re ready to go. Our officers are passionate about serving this community, and they mean it. I want our community to know how passionate our officers are about that. They work hard.”
In the coming months, Lukens hopes to begin modernizing some of the practices in the department. He explained several projects to the Police Citizens Advisory Board at a meeting on Thursday. The Alliance Times-Herald will share more of his vision as described at the meeting in the Feb. 10 edition.
Lukens encourages citizens to interact with the department to help it grow. The department recently invited people to take a survey, split into three parts, to guide the APD in helping to better serve Alliance’s citizens. The survey will close on Feb. 13. People may find the three parts of the survey at the following websites: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TDNFC7P, https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TCHBZML and https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TS3W9HD.