Lt. David Lehmitz has filled a lot shoes in his career, spending time as a patrol officer, detective, officer trainer and narcotics investigator. But to his colleagues, Lehmitz”s shoes as commander of Moscow Police”s Campus Division will be the biggest to fill as he plans to retire in December.
Yishan Chen | Argonaut
Moscow Police Lt. David Lehmitz has been commander of MPD”s Campus Division since 2007.
“I”ve always enjoyed this work,” Lehmitz said.
Lehmitz commands a team of two campus community policing officers who work with patrol officers and university staff to provide a safe environment for students at the University of Idaho.
“I do it because I enjoy the relationship with the student, faculty, and staff,” Lehmitz said.
Lehmitz has been doing police work for nearly 30 years, most of which has been with the Moscow Police Department.
He has been with the campus division since 2007 and said when his time was up in that position he requested to stay and his request was accepted. He said he is ready to retire, and will do so in December.
“Twenty seven years is a long time to do anything, and he certainly did it well,” said Patrol Division Commander Paul Kwiatkowski.
Kwiatkowski said he and Lehmtiz have been friends and coworkers for around 20 years, and even earned the ranking of lieutenant together.
Besides his work on campus, Kwiatkowski said Lehmitz has done a lot through security work for visiting dignitaries, traveling with the football team and working directly with students.
Former Campus Officer Sergeant Art Lindquist said that the most important thing Lehmitz has done is establish smooth and effective communication between the university and the police department.
“He opened up a greater communication with the university where we would meet with the Dean of Students to figure out how best to deal with any issues that came up,” Lindquist said.
Lindquist said that communication is extremely important to a successful policing effort, and that lack of communication can result in a national tragedy.
“When I joined, I had no idea how our relationship was supposed to work,” said Mitch Running, a campus officer who has been with the campus division for nearly a year. “Dave opened up a lot of doors to help us learn about how things work in the university.”
Running said Lehmitz has been a great mentor to him. He said Lehmitz”s absence will be noticed because of his experience and passion for the job and said Lehmitz is involved with university administration in many ways, even holding a position on a hiring panel.
“That”s how much respect they have for him,” Running said.
Kwiatkowski said Lehmitz was involved with the alcohol task force, which he said is particularly important because most crimes on campus are alcohol related, such as sexual assault, violence and accidental injuries.
“It is difficult to say how many lives you might be saving when you”re doing preventative work,” Lindquist said. “Lehmitz and the university share a priority – that salvaging a student is the most important thing.”
Kwiatkowski said there is a lot that the public takes for granted where a lot of work goes on behind the scenes, including the work that goes into the campus division.
Kwiatkowski also said that Lehmitz, like the rest of the Moscow Police Department, prefers to educate rather than punish. He said that in some towns, police send people to jail in a way that can be unhelpful in the long-term.
“Instead of the cops going in and yanking a kid out of school, Dave and the risk assessment team would look for different avenues to solve the problem,” Kwiatkowski said. “Younger guys see older guys like Dave and learn there”s other ways to handle a situation and keep it low key.”
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NishantRMohan