PEORIA, Ill. (25 News) – A Peoria-native is about to take the reins of the city’s Police Department.
Assistant Chief Brad Dixon will take over for Chief Eric Echevarria on May 16th, the day after Echevarria retires from police work. Dixon has worked a variety of roles in different departments in his 25 years with Peoria Police.
Dixon tells 25 News he wants to have officers go through similar experiences when he becomes chief.
“I think it’s helped to round me out. I look to do that with our employee development of our employees. I think it’s important to get into different units, learn the different aspects of the job. It just helps with your career progression,” Dixon said.
Dixon says he wants to run the police department with an emphasis on data driven decisions, especially for technology and where to place officers throughout the city. In addition, Dixon wants to expand community engagement projects, such as summer safe zones and kid lock-ins.
Dixon adds that he expects artificial intelligence and drones to grow in importance for the department, and will push for emerging technologies.
“The technology is difficult to keep up with, but at the end of the day, we want technology that’s easy to use. It’s efficient for the officer. It improves safety for the officer and the community, and those are the technologies we need to keep looking at,” Dixon said.
(Reporting by Taylor Fleming)
