The DeKalb Police Department and the NIU Department of Police and Public Safety will join together in a Detective Exchange Program to help reduce crime and increase communication.

Although the pairing will not begin for another week, some city officials are already in support.

Mayor Kris Povlsen said it was a very positive thing and the team makes sense because the two departments overlap frequently.

“It will eliminate some of the problems we’ve had,” Povlsen said. “We’ve had, from time to time, a drug problem, and I think better police work and better detective work will help.”

As part of the program, one NIU detective will work on DeKalb cases in the DeKalb Police Department for a week or two and vice versa. This will give both departments a chance to communicate.

“It will give us a greater chance at solving crime,” DeKalb Police Department Commander Jason Leverton said. “It will also help with big cases because we will already have mutual understandings about how to handle it.”

Darren Mitchell, acting NIU police chief, said the program gives each department a chance to not only exchange personnel, but also understand how each department runs.

Leverton and Povlsen said this is appropriate because the two departments share the same community and have the same goals: keeping the community and students safe.

DeKalb Police Chief Gene Lowery planned to work with the NIU police department more in his 20/20 Initiatives, which is 20 programs the department wants to or has implemented this year.

“Chief Lowery and I have been working on this for some time now,” Mitchell said. “It will step up coordinated efforts to bring departments together.” The Program will be implemented the week of March 17, Leverton said.

“I’m disappointed it didn’t happen long ago,” Povlsen said.