Recently returned from the FBI National Academy and happy with his job as assistant police chief for the Collinsville Police Department, Tom Coppotelli was not looking for another career. Lindenwood University – Belleville, though, had other plans for him.

Tom Coppotelli / Photo by Roger Starkey

The 11-year-old university has grown from an extension of the St. Charles, Mo. location to a full campus with 2,300 students, 30 undergraduate and graduate degree options and more than 25 athletics teams. LU-Belleville will open its first extension in Collinsville this fall.

The expanding campus determined it needed a director of public safety and security, and decided Coppotelli was the man for the job. Coppotelli, who received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from LU-Belleville and has been teaching a criminal justice class there for the past three years, learned of the position when the administration reached out to him.

“I wasn’t looking,” Coppotelli said. “But I mulled it over for a couple of weeks, and decided it was a good move.”

Initially, Coppotelli will oversee both armed police officers and unarmed safety officers, he said. Campus police currently consists of off-duty officers from other departments, but that may change as the campus continues to grow, Coppotelli said. The university plans to transition to a more traditional campus police department, but no timeframe has been set for a full transition.

The 24-year veteran of the Collinsville Police Department will begin at LU-Belleville in August, shortly before his official Sept. 2 retirement date with the CPD. He will use accrued vacation to get a start on his new role.

Collinsville Police Chief Steve Evans said Coppotelli was instrumental in the early stages of helping him transition into his new role and the department will miss Coppotelli’s experience in both the department and the community.

“I’m disappointed to see him leave, but excited for Tom. He earned the opportunity,” Evans said. “Lindenwood will be very happy with their choice.”

Coppotelli’s retirement will mark the end of a 29-year municipal law enforcement career that began as a part-time police officer in his home town of Washington Park. As a firefighter in National City in the mid 1980’s, Coppotelli began spending time with policeman and got the bug for law enforcement, he said. Coppotelli made short stops as a full-time officer in National City, Washington Park and Sauget before landing in Collinsville in 1990.

“I never applied for another job after I walked in the door here,” Coppotelli said.

Six years as a patrolman was followed by five years as a detective, where Coppotelli said he found his niche. Following about two years on the Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force, Coppotelli was promoted to sergeant and returned to patrol, before becoming the supervisor of detectives. A promotion to lieutenant came in 2008 and a year later he became assistant chief.

The same age as Evans, Coppotelli said he has reached the highest level he ever will in the Collinsville Police Department.

“I still love it here. I think Steve Evans is an awesome chief. The department is moving in the right direction. Everything is going great,” Coppotelli said. “But it was just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

Coppotelli said he will miss the excitement of the streets in his new position, although the excitement was not always good. Asked if he had ever been scared on the job, Coppotelli did not hesitate to name a fatal shooting incident in 2003 involving his good friend Lt. Rich Wittenauer.

“We were called to a house where a mentally ill subject had stabbed his sister. He came out of the house in a rage and stabbed Rich four of five times. Rich shot him and I shot him twice,” Coppotelli said. “There have been some hairy situations, but that was the hairiest.”

But the good times far outnumbered the bad.

“I love it, it’s been a great career,” Coppotelli said.

The thing he will miss most about the Collinsville Police Department is the camaraderie

“There’s a certain group of guys here that I came up with through the ranks. I enjoy walking into this building every day, I enjoy talking to these guys,” Coppotelli said. “You have that brotherhood here. I’m going to miss that sense of family.”