To submit a letter to the editor, click here.
To pitch a ‘My Turn’ guest column, email jdalessio@news-gazette.com.
Want to purchase today’s print edition? Here’s a map of single-copy locations.
Sign up for our daily newsletter here
CHAMPAIGN — Andre Davis recalls sitting in front of the family television set just about every night in 1981 and watching the “CBS Evening News” broadcast to get the latest dispatches from Atlanta, where at least 28 Black adolescents had been reported missing or murdered.
It was then, at just 8 years old, that Davis first felt compelled to become a police detective.
“As a child, I’m asking a) Why are these children who look like me and who are my same age disappearing and later being found dead? b) Who is doing it? And c) Why hasn’t he or she been caught yet?” said Davis, a lieutenant with the Champaign Police Department.
On Friday, the lifelong Champaign resident will retire after a 20-year career that encompassed almost every position at the department, from patrol officer to crisis negotiator to detective to field-training sergeant to district commander.
Whether it was serving the very neighborhood he grew up in, securing justice for child survivors of sexual abuse or navigating the department through the “crisis” of the pandemic years, Davis said the job was more rewarding than he even hoped for.
“Some people come into this profession and they don’t stay around long because it’s not what they were expecting, not what they wanted, not what they signed up for,” Davis said. “But I can certainly say, at the end of my 20 years here, that this was what I signed up for and I’ve gotten way more out of it than I ever dreamed to.”
While the infamous Atlanta child murders left an impression on Davis — his family hosted a cousin that year who otherwise spent summers in Georgia — his first exposure to Champaign police was through Willie Sallie, the father of a childhood friend.
He was a “big deal,” Davis said, a Black Champaign officer and body builder always manning the department’s tent during C-U Days at Douglass Park.
After graduating from Centennial High School, Davis enlisted in the Navy and then became a military officer.
His decision to return home, study at Parkland, eventually graduate from the University of Illinois’ Police Training Institute and apply to join his hometown department was guided in part by another Champaign officer, Richard Atkinson, whom Davis said explained to him all the opportunities the department offered.
So, he joined as a patrol officer in 2004 and got assigned to the city’s southwest district. On the beat, he’d feel nostalgia when responding to calls for service at Sholem Aquatic Center or the Country Fair Shopping Center, places where he spent hours as a kid.
Taken together, various parts of Davis’ background — his upbringing in the area; the relationships he maintained with Champaign residents he went to school or played sports with; his identity in profession that, like others in society, doesn’t bear Black officers as representing a majority demographic — make him a kind of “unicorn,” he said.
“The fact that I’m from here, I grew up here, I’m a minority and I’m also a police officer, gave me a very unique and dynamic lens to look at things through,” Davis said. “When I’m on calls, or if I’m making decisions about a particular operation decision or whatever, I’m making those decisions based on this unique lens.”
Of the eight years Davis served as a patrol officer, five were as part of the department’s crisis-negotiation team. He was recruited for the role because he’s known as someone who’s “not quick to jump the gun” and because of his natural talent at talking to people and de-escalating situations, he said.
All of those qualities are crucial for a task-force whose primary tool for saving lives is communication. Davis said it was important to really listen to people in a state of crisis to understand the root of their issue, allow them to air grievances and create a window for officers to develop a tactical solution if necessary.
“What I liked most about that position is you have the ability to save lives,” Davis said. “If someone is having some time of episode, if they are considering taking their life at that date or moment of time, being able to help them work through those issues to buy more time — really, that’s the objective; we have to buy time.”
Detectives at the department are typically assigned a niche. Some work on financial crimes while others focus on murders. Once promoted to the sought-after position, Davis recalls his division commander nearly fell out of his chair when Davis told him he wanted to investigate child sex crimes.
The grueling and heartbreaking field doesn’t draw many detectives, Davis said, but he wanted to pursue it because he always felt a need to advocate for victims who are the most vulnerable and least able to defend themselves.
“The reality is, especially in that line of work, there is no happy ending,” Davis said. “The only thing you can do is provide some answers and, best-case scenario, you can identify and legally hold somebody accountable for their actions, because there is still loss. For the survivors, their life will never be the same.”
Davis became a sergeant in 2019 and was soon thrust into a “perfect storm” of issues that buffeted the department: An influx of retirements and departures contributed to a staffing shortage, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 challenged public trust, and gun violence spiked above pre-pandemic levels.
In 2021 alone, the year Davis became a lieutenant, the department confirmed 259 incidents of gunfire. He recalled holding briefings outside the station due to COVID-19 restrictions and hearing volleys of gunfire in the distance, knowing that was where officers were headed next.
“Without the trust of the community, you cannot effectively police,” Davis said. “Although our department didn’t do anything specifically, it was the residual effect of George Floyd that really highlighted tensions between the community and the police department, and we had to manage that despite being understaffed and despite dealing with another major component, being the gun violence.
“To be honest, my goal, my objective, every shift was to survive and advance,” Davis continued. “Survive this shift, advance to the next one.”
Some of the happiest times of Davis’ career have come from watching the department rebound from the “three-headed monster” of those recent years as community relationships have improved and shootings have gone down, he said.
In April, Champaign police reported only 10 vacancies, a hiring surge compared with the 25 vacancies it carried in 2022. In that way, Davis’ mark on the department will last for years because he also served as a field-training officer, sergeant and commander.
In those roles, he emphasized that the department doesn’t want “cookie cutter” onboarding practices. The mold he oversaw was for experienced officers to pass down their unique lessons to new trainees, and for the Champaign to only accept applicants qualified to its city standards.
Ultimately, whether it was in his time as a patrol officer or in the leadership post, Davis said his biggest takeaway from his career in law enforcement was that respect and integrity always come out on top.
“In the end, kindness will win the day,” he said. “Everyone has their own issues, problems, situations that they’re trying to work through, and as a police officer, you do meet people on some of the worst days of their life.
“My goal has always been, at the end of a contact, hopefully, I left you in a better place than what you were when I found you.”
