Champaign police announces 3 finalists for chief

Champaign Police Cars
Angela Coonce is currently the Commander of the North Patrol Division (Major) for the City of St. Louis, Missouri.
Bryce Johnson is currently the Chief of Police for the City of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Timothy T. Tyler is currently the Director/Chief of Police for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Law Enforcement in Springfield, Illinois.

CHAMPAIGN – The city of Champaign has announced three finalists for the role of police chief.

Angela Coonce is the Commander of the North Patrol Division of the St. Louis, Missouri police department. She has held that post since November 2019. Most of her career has been with that department. She holds advanced degrees in Security Studies and Management and Leadership. 

Another candidate is Idaho Falls, Idaho police chief Bryce Johnson. He has led that department since August 2017. Johnson also served as police chief in Juneau, Alaska. He also served as an intelligence analyst in the US Naval Reserve.

The third candidate is Chief Timothy Tyler with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Law Enforcement in Springfield. He has served in that role since November 2020. Tyler is also a Colonel in the US Army, and a Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.

Click here to view video messages from each candidate.

The city says the public is welcome to meet the police chief finalists at an open house on March 29 at 7:00 p.m. at Illinois Terminal’s CityView Room (4th floor), 45 E. University Avenue in Champaign.

The new Champaign police chief is a replacement for Chief Anthony Cobb, who resigned in August 2021.

 

Reginald Hardwick

Reginald Hardwick is the News & Public Affairs Director at Illinois Public Media. He oversees daily newscasts and online stories. He also manages The 21st Show, a live, weekday talk show that airs on six NPR stations throughout Illinois. He is the executive producer of IPM's annual environmental TV special "State of Change." And he is the co-creator of Illinois Soul, IPM's Black-focused audio service that launched in February 2024. Before arriving at IPM in 2019, he served as News Director at WKAR in East Lansing and spent 17 years as a TV news producer and manager at KXAS, the NBC-owned station in Dallas/Fort Worth. Reginald is the recipient of three Edward R. Murrow regional awards, seven regional Emmy awards, and multiple honors from the National Association of Black Journalists. Born in Vietnam, Reginald grew up in Colorado and is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado. Email: rh14@illinois.edu Twitter: @RNewsIPM