9 October 2023
SUPERIOR Superior Police Chief Nicholas Alexander will retire at the end of January, capping off more than a quarter century of service with the department.
Under his leadership, the department adopted body cameras, emphasized community policing, instituted the Pathways to Hope program which offers treatment instead of incarceration for those struggling with addiction and launched a new Coordinated Response Specialist position.
“My overarching goal as chief was to improve trust within the community,” the chief said.
Alexander took a nontraditional path to policing. With a major in computer science and computational mathematics, he was planning a possible career in aeronautics or engineering. He was working security for Kmart and Super One Foods as a college student and an ad in the Telegram prompted him to apply for the police department.
Since being hired off the list in 1998, Alexander has worked in every role in the department. That included forming the Lake Superior Forensic Technology and Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, now a regional hub that processes digital evidence for cases in the northern half of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
His nine years at the helm of the department has increased transparency, earned statewide recognition and focused on progressive policing. He’s also shaped the department roster. Between two thirds and three quarters of current officers will have been hired by Alexander when he retires.
“Nick Alexander is the best police chief in Wisconsin, and probably in the United States,” Superior Mayor Jim Paine said in a news release announcing the retirement. “He pushed his fellow officers to innovate their department and to emphasize service and respect for every citizen, every day. While Chief Alexander’s retirement is a real loss to Superior, his intellect, courage and vision improved our city every year of his service. I was honored to work with him, and I’m grateful for his service.”
Goals met
Bringing body cameras online was one of Alexander’s goals when he became police chief in 2015.
“There were a number of reasons for that. One was to hopefully foster greater trust in the community that their interactions with law enforcement were going to be recorded, and therefore if there was a concern or complaint later, there would be a better way to investigate and resolve those,” he said.
The department is in its seventh year of using body cameras. Citizen complaints have gone down, Alexander said, and any that come in are now easier to investigate.
“I think it’s a best practice in law enforcement I think in terms of just accountability,” Alexander said. “Everybody behaves better when they know they’re being watched or videotaped. And to capture evidence.”
City councilors tasked the new chief with dealing with drug problems, which at the time included methamphetamine and an increase in heroin use. That has since grown to include fentanyl. In response, Alexander launched Pathways to Hope in 2018. It focused on both sides of the drug problem. In addition to enforcement, there was the option for rehabilitation.
“Oftentimes rehabilitation getting them help and connected to resources is a better alternative than simply exposure to the criminal justice system … there is an opportunity sometimes to take a path to recovery instead of entry into the criminal justice system,” Alexander said.
The program, he said, symbolizes a shift in policing philosophy
“My tenure as chief has always been about finding the best outcome,” Alexander said. “Programs like Pathways to Hope, you know, symbolize that the best outcome isn’t always an arrest.”
Its success was followed up with the creation of a Coordinated Response Specialist position to help better serve people in mental health crises, as well as those who struggling with substance abuse or homelessness.
“Getting people connected to resources and finding ways to help them often leads to better outcomes than simply just turning to use the criminal justice system and the courts to solve the problem,” Alexander said.
Innovative training, including Fair and Impartial Policing, which examines implicit bias and how to keep it out of the job, and Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement, have been brought in by Alexander as well.
One of the goals he is currently working on adding a therapy dog to the department may not be accomplished by the time he retires, but he is working to lay the groundwork for it.
A news release about the chief’s retirement hit newsroom mailboxes about 10 minutes before the Superior Police and Fire Commission agenda for October was sent. One of the new business items for the Oct. 11 meeting is to outline and approve a police chief hiring process.
It’s a sentimental time for the chief.
“I spent half my life working here,” Alexander said. “It’s a job where you from day one as a police officer to now, you have an opportunity to make positive impacts in people’s lives. The way that you do that changes in the different roles that you’re in in the department, but you still have an opportunity to do that.”
He won’t be going far. Retirement will include working at the Pequaywan Inn outside of Duluth, which he co-owns, and teaching part time at the University of Wisconsin-Superior.
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