People: Ike McKinnon

The Detroit News headline said it all: 'We Like Ike.' Shortly after mayor Dennis Archer named Isaiah 'Ike' McKinnon, 'Ph.D. '85, as Detroit's new chief of police in December, 'whoops of joy' reverberated through the city's station houses.

The security director for the Renaissance Center since 1989 and a 19-year veteran of the Detroit Police Dept., McKinnon boasts a 'squeaky clean' reputation and seems to be universally liked and respected. Ike has worked in street patrol, recruiting, public information, internal affairs and security details, and has earned 22 citations before retiring in 1984 as inspector. That tremendous experience, along with his black belt in karate, will come in handy as he tackles one of America's toughest beats.'My first priority was to get more police officers on the street, and we're doing that,' he notes. 'Second, we need to build confidence in the community towards our police department.' He adds: 'We we must do everything we can to provide an efficient, proper, honest job and to be respected by and to respect our community.'

Ike credits MSU with his total education. 'I really, truly enjoyed MSU,' he recalls. 'I always wanted to go to MSU, ever since I followed (Spartan cager) Johnny Green in the 1950s. Then in the 1960s I fell in love with the MSU campus when I went up for some football games.'

But it was MSU people that Ike most remembers. '(Professor and vice president emeritus) Eldon Nonnamaker was the best committee chair one could have. He's become a fast friend and we have an unmatched relationship. Also, professors like Bob Trojanowicz, the guru of community policing, were very helpful.'

When he attended MSU, he was in charge of gang squads and sex crimes. 'My drive to every day was therapeutic,' he recalls with a laughter, so much so that once he was caught speeding towards East Lansing. 'The highway police officer who stopped me was a former student of mine. He lectured me about how symbols of the law cannot violate the law. I was proud of him.'