After more than 24 years with the SIUC Police Department, Lt. Kay Doan was promoted to captain last week, making her the first female to hold the position at department.

Working her way up through the department, Doan started as a telecommunications operator in 1980. Three years later she became an officer, and has been vital to the department ever since, said Director Todd Sigler, who has worked with Doan for 21 years.

Sigler said Doan was the best candidate for the position because of her history with the campus and the department. Although he did not specifically choose Doan because she was an in-house candidate, it proved to have its advantages.

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“She has an appreciation for the type of environment we are responsible for,” Sigler said. “The University environment is a unique setting, there are so many members and institutions interacting, and that something that she understands. I could sit there and tell someone from the outside about it, but she has lived through it.”

As captain, Doan is in charge of the patrol division in addition to her previous responsibilities managing the investigations unit and telecommunications operations.

Doan said her workload has already increased, but that “the work goes with the title.”

“I’m still settling in,” Doan said. “It’s quite a big adjustment, but I am excited about it. It’s going to be a challenge, but I love what I do and I am ready for it.”

Before her new post, Doan served as interim director in 1992, and again earlier this year before Sigler was appointed.

Doan said it is still unsure if someone will fill her old position because she and Sigler are working on making organizational changes within the department. But her first priority is getting to know her new employees.

“I’ve worked with most of these people for a long time,” Doan said. “But now’s the time to get to really know these patrol officers, and to really meet the people that will be working under me now.”

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