Illinois Tech Public Administration Faculty Honored with National Awards for Innovative Policing

Marc S. Buslik, a member of the Master of Public Administration program faculty at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Stuart School of Business, recently received prestigious awards from two international professional associations for his innovative work in criminal justice and policing. This work took place during and after his long career with the Chicago Police Department (CPD).

• The American Society of Criminology (ASC) Division of Policing honored Buslik with the Innovation in Policing Award in recognition of his Collaborative Police Legitimacy model and the creation of a new police response for people in mental health crisis.

• The Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS) conferred its Leadership and Innovation Award to Buslik for his commitment to improving the criminal justice system, in particular his development of an effort to address people in mental health crisis in Chicago’s Uptown community.

“The Collaborative Police Legitimacy Model is a theoretical framework that is built upon evidence-based principles and that emphasizes the importance of building positive relationships between police agencies and the communities they serve,” says Buslik. “Essentially, the community must be invested in police efforts in order to gain the trust that the police are ‘doing the right things, the right ways.’”

A retired 39-year CPD veteran, Buslik’s distinguished career has included service as a district commander, most recently of the 19th (Town Hall) District on the city’s North Side, and assignments with CPD’s patrol, investigative services, narcotics, intelligence, internal affairs, research and development, and information technology units.

Among his many other contributions, Buslik was CPD’s liaison to the United States Department of Justice during their civil rights investigation of the department, served on CPD’s inaugural Commission on Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies implementation team, and has served as a department terrorism liaison officer, a member of the FBI’s Terrorism Liaison Officers Committee, and on the Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force.

He also has served as a consultant and project leader for public safety units in cities, towns, and counties in several states and is currently the lead instructor for radiation and nuclear incident response training funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for first responders in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, and in the state of Illinois.

Buslik holds a Ph.D. in Criminology, Law, and Justice and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Illinois Chicago. He has authored or contributed to more than a dozen publications on topics related to policing and criminal justice and has given numerous presentations at academic symposiums and at conferences and seminars sponsored by professional associations and governmental agencies at the local, state, and national level.