Millikin University announced Mark Bridges as its new Interim Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police.
Before coming to Millikin, Bridges received his master’s degree in Law Enforcement Administration, graduated from the FBI National Academy, served in senior command roles with the Springfield Police, and served as the Chief of Police in Virden, Illinois.
With more than 40 years of law enforcement experience under his belt, Bridges is ready to take on the role.
“I think my overall goal is just to help the students feel safe on campus,” Bridges said.
As one of his first actions as the Interim Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police, Bridges plans to update the emergency preparedness plan to ensure safety on campus in emergency situations like earthquakes, hazardous material releases, floods, tornadoes, fire or explosions, extended power outages, mass casualty events, medical epidemics, and significant disruption due to cyberthreats.
“I’m looking at the emergency preparedness planning situation for the college and doing some training with the president’s leadership team on emergency preparedness,” Bridges said.
Millikin already has an established emergency preparedness plan, but Bridges plans to review it and identify areas for improvement.
Bridges has also begun to schedule meetings with outside resources that Millikin Public Safety could benefit from.
“I’m currently setting up meetings with the local law enforcement agencies to continue to build relationships with the agencies around us that we ought to work with,” Bridges says.
Although Public Safety is well known on campus, Bridges wants to make sure that Public Safety grows its social media presence to make sure its services are visible to the community.
“Besides being visible physically, we want to have a social media presence,” he said.
Bridges has been in leadership positions prior to coming to Millikin and has a strong sense of purpose in the role. He recognizes that Millikin Public Safety and those who are in similar positions must realize that their role is to provide for the community.
“We don’t exist as an entity under ourselves to take care of ourselves,” Bridges said. “We’re here to provide safety and security for people… It’s really about what other people need. It’s a very servant-oriented concept.”
Overall, Bridges is ready to get his job started and is quite excited.
“It’s a pleasure to be here,” Bridges said. “It’s a beautiful campus. [I’m] really looking forward to it.”
