A Kankakee police detective has been added to the sergeant ranks and a new officer was also added to the force.

At Monday’s Kankakee City Council meeting, the newest sergeant, Demetrius Williams, a detective and member of the force since September 2019, was introduced as the department’s 11th sergeant.

In addition, Lucas Bills was added to the force, bringing the department up to 68 members, one more than budgeted, but there are pending retirements on the way, Kankakee Mayor Chris Curtis said after the meeting.

Part of the squad’s Investigations Bureau, Williams, from Conyers, Georgia, is a 2010 graduate of Olivet Nazarene University, where he majored in youth ministry.

Williams worked as a substitute teacher at Camelot Education in Bourbonnais, an alternative therapeutic day school, and then with the Indian Oaks Academy in Manteno, before being hired by the Kankakee Police Department.

Public safety runs in the Williams family. Williams’ wife, Kelsey, is a nine-year dispatcher with KanComm. The couple has four children ranging in ages from six to 16.

Williams, 38, said he realized a little later in life the best way for him to help people outside the four walls of the church was to become a police officer.

“My squad car is my sanctuary,” he said before the council meeting. “My main goal is to be a leader, to help instill compassion. The greatest skill set an officer has is compassion, and I want to be a leader.”

Stating he envisions this to be his final career change, he is hoping to one day down the road retire from the city police department.

Regarding Bills, 29, he is a 2015 graduate of Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School. He worked as a forklift operator and a carpenter before realizing police work was his real passion.

Kankakee is his first position in law enforcement. He was hired in December and only recently completed his police academy training.

He said he considered entering the military but thought it may be too late in life for that. He was informed there was an opening on the city force, so he applied.

“I was hungry for more (than construction). That job was getting a little stagnant,” he said.

Successful in his mission, he was hired Dec. 23. He then went to the academy, where he graduated on April 23. He is the youngest of four children to Dave and Lola Bills, of Bradley.