MORRIS – After 28 years at the Morris Police Department, Chief Brent Dite is about to make a career change.

He’s going to be a teacher.

“I’ve spent my whole adult life working for the Morris Police Department,” Dite said. “It will be different, but I think I have a lot to offer the students as the criminal justice instructor.”

Dite is expected to fulfill his duties as police chief through September, when he will retire from the department. In August, he will start his new career as a criminal justice instructor at Grundy Area Vocational Center.

Deputy Chief John Severson, who has worked with Dite his entire law enforcement career, said Dite is a great teacher.

“One thing I learned from the chief is to never wear loafers as a detective,” Severson said.

Severson said he and Dite were investigating a case as detectives when the suspect took off. Dite ran to the car, and Severson had to give chase on foot.

Dite laughed at the memory and said he thought the lesson was “always be the one closest to the car.”

“Selfishly, I don’t want him to [retire],” Severson said. “But he will be a great addition to GAVC, an asset to the school system.”

He said Dite’s leadership skills and the fact he is a well-respected community member will provide a great example for students.

Patrolman Derek Zumbahlen has known the chief his whole life, long before he knew he would be a police officer. He grew up as Dite’s next-door neighbor, with the two families sharing a driveway.

He said his respect for Dite isn’t just on a professional level, but also a personal level dating back to those days.

Working with teens is something Zumbahlen said he thinks Dite will be good at because he’s always exemplified fairness.

“He has a good moral character,” Zumbahlen said. “It all starts at the top, and then the trickle-down effect brings it out in the rest of us.”

Dite said his character and fairness are things he grew up with in Morris, something he expects to help him as an instructor.

“I know the history and culture of Morris. I’ve lived here my whole life,” he said.

GAVC Director Lance Copes said the center was looking for an instructor who was passionate and student-centered, and Dite is both.

“We’ve been lucky to have instructors with high levels of experience,” Copes said before the Feb. 25 meeting where the vote to hire Dite took place.

He said Dite brings knowledge of cutting-edge technology used in police work today, and is the perfect candidate for the job to show students how officers do their job in today’s technology-driven world.

Technology is one of the things Dite’s most proud of bringing to the Morris Police Department.

As chief, he has implemented the transition of accident reporting in patrol cars to computers, which he has had installed in every squad car.

In 2011, he acquired a matching grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority to help the department purchase a LiveScan system.

LiveScan is an inkless computerized system that takes digitized images of fingerprints and also saves the demographic data in a digital format. Having it all electronically makes it easily transmitted to Illinois State Police for processing.

He also used an Illinois Emergency Management Agency grant to purchase everything needed for an emergency operation center for the police department.

Dite also created a Facebook account to use to get emergency information out to the public. The Facebook page is also used to search for persons of interest in ongoing cases.

“We have cleared so many cases through the use of Facebook,” Dite said.

Morris Mayor Richard Kopczick was unavailable for comment as of press time, on the city’s plan to fill Dite’s position.