Focusing on the positive

BATAVIA – Brian Nallenweg is the guy who put "community" into community policing.

Now, after 26 years with the Batavia Police Department, Nallenweg is retiring from the service and was honored at the April 18 Batavia City Council meeting.

“Brian is best known for his community-oriented policing style,” police Chief Gary Schira told the audience, filled with Nallenweg’s family, friends and fellow officers.

Indeed, Nallenweg was twice the recipient of the department’s Fred Behner Award for outstanding community service, and he was the 1997 Batavia Officer of the Year.

“One of the things I learned over the years was that I had to focus on intentionally doing positive things in this profession,” Nallenweg said. “If you let the negative parts of the job take over, you’ll lose.”

Nallenweg lamented the demise of the Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education – or DARE – program in Batavia schools, and pointed to this as an example of a negative that he turned into a positive.

“I’m not a trained DARE officer, but I do know how to have lunch with kids, give them tours of the police department and give high-fives,” Nallenweg said.

After three years with the Elk Grove Police Department, Nallenweg came to Batavia in 1990. During his career in Batavia, Nallenweg served as a patrolman and in the department’s investigations unit, including two tours of duty as a detective.

Nallenweg became a specialist in financial crime investigation and computer forensics, and is known throughout the law enforcement community as an expert in those types of investigations, Schira said.

Now that he is leaving the department, Nallenweg will put his computer skills to use as a part-time technical support specialist for Batavia School District 101, going from school to school to solve computer problems and help support the district’s Chromebooks program.

Nallenweg, 51, of Batavia, is an active member of Bethany Lutheran Church and volunteers his service to the homeless community at the Hesed House in Aurora.

“I’m leaving with a satisfied feeling,” Nallenweg said of his retirement. “I think I did some good in the world.”