I am a true home grown LCC star.

Hello, my name is Chad Beckett. I am a father, brother, son, Christian, and a police officer with LCC Police Department… at least for a few more days. I will be retiring after 25 years of service with LCC and this is my story.

LCC has been the one constant in my life. When I first started attending LCC at the age of 19 I had no idea it was about to become one of my defining influences throughout my entire adult life. I started as a curious undecided student trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Soon after taking Joel Maatman’s Intro to Criminal justice class I found my passion for law enforcement. I started working at LCC Public Safety as a student employee Auxillary Officer when I was 19. Soon after I was promoted to Part time as an Intermediate Officer and continued to work in that role until I earned my Associates Degree and got accepted to LCC’s Mid-Michigan Police Academy. After graduating the Police Academy, the job hunt was on and man was the job market tough back then. At this point Sgt French, who would later become the Chief of Police at LCC PD, called me up and offered me a Part-time position as a Police Officer at LCC PD, which I gladly accepted. After a while I was promoted to a fulltime Police Officer position. But that wouldn’t be the end of my LCC journey.

While working full time I continued to attend school at LCC through LCC’s university center where I would receive my Bachelor’s Degree through Siena Heights University and met the love of life, my current wife… that’s a whole other story! LCC PD has always been a great family-oriented police department which understands and supports the need for a healthy family life. They understood that this job takes its tole on not only the police officer but on their families as well as we work 24/7, 365 days a year. The officers would work together as a team to be flexible with the schedule so that officers could attend family events and holidays, and take time off to enjoy their family times. As I continued to work for LCC Police Department I rose through the ranks and gained numerous life lessons. I have collected several stories, a lot of friends and even more memories.

There will always be defining moments in life that you will always remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when significant events in history take place. During my first 6 months as a police officer I was awarded the life saving award for helping to perform CPR on a student in the fitness center who experienced a cardiac arrest, this was before AED’s were common practice. Another defining moment that I clearly remember was when I was on duty and watched live on the TV’s on campus as the second plane crashed into the 2nd twin tower and how the entire country put aside all their differences and joined together as one nation to love and support each other. We all need to get back to that place of love and supporting each other. The number of stories I have collected could go on for a while.

Now after recently losing both my parents and as I have completed my 25 years of service here at LCC I look back on the memories, both the good times and bad, and keep reminding myself that this is but only 1 chapter in my book. As one chapter ends, yet another begins. I look forward with excitement and apprehension of what the future holds but know that each season in life has its purpose and I look forward to reinventing myself and focusing on family time. But I can’t help but think back on what a huge part LCC has played in all aspects of my life. Thank you to everyone here at LCC for the love and support, you will be missed.

Supervisor: Ruben Maldonado

What's your favorite memory of this employee? Do you have any other positive thoughts to share about this individual?

I have only been Chad's supervisor for a short time but I worked with him as a patrol officer for several years. Chad didn't realize this, but I learned so much by watching him and how he conducted himself on the calls we had together. Funny story, I was in field training being trained by a different officer and Chad put on the radio for me to check a subject that was loitering behind a building. I went to the call and he said "handle this as if you found this person all by yourself". After I finished the call, he looked at me and said "good job but why didn't you inform dispatch you were checking someone"? Chad reminded me that I was supposed to act as if I found the person. I was thinking to myself "is this guy messing with me"? Of course, Chad was 100 percent correct and I should have called dispatch letting them know where I was and what I was doing. It was little things like that which made Chad a great Field Training Officer. I remember the time Chad stopped traffic as ducks were crossing the street. I believe it made the news at the time. It wouldn't be right if I didn't mention the time Chad was chasing a Pokémon character in front of Washington Court Place. Chad also played many roles in the department. He trained new officers, calibrated our PBT every month, he was a fire arms and driving instructor for several years. He always took the roles of a trainer seriously. The department is better for it.

On a serious note, in my opinion we are lucky and should be grateful the time that Chad was quick in his response and was able to intercept the individual who had made threats to shoot up the college several years ago. In our profession, it is hard to measure success when something doesn't happen. We will never know what would have happened if the individual was not found. for that Chad deserves all of our appreciation.

Chad will be missed by his coworkers and staff around the college. We all wish him well.