Quantrell Priest went from special ed teacher to police officer

GENEVA – Despite having a family history of police service, Geneva police officer Quantrell Priest didn’t think it was in the cards for him.

The former special education teacher’s father and stepmother were both officers.

“I didn’t foresee this in my future, honestly,” Priest said.

For six years, he taught special ed at a private school that served students from Berwyn and Cicero who had severe emotional and behavioral disorders.

And he loved it.

“I loved the kids,” Priest said. “I just kind of grew frustrated. Because when you are dealing with that population – that are the kids who need the most help and get the least amount of resources and assistance – it affected me outside of work.”

He dealt with the bureaucracy, went to all the meetings and no matter what he did, it just weighed on him.

And then a cop came to the rescue and showed him a new path.

“I had a student that I had been on his case about coming to class,” Priest said. “He was truant and I got on him, ‘You got to get to school.’ He missed the bus and didn’t want to disappoint me. He only knows one way to school, on the expressway, and he was walking on the expressway.”

A state trooper saw him, caught up with him before he could get hurt and brought him to school.

“He was so excited to tell me about it,” Priest said. “A lot of kids didn’t like police officers. They had negative interactions, either with themselves or members of their family. But to see that excitement. That meant the world to him, to have that positive interaction. I know it sounds like a Hallmark movie, but I said, ‘This is what I want to do. I want to be that positive experience.’”

“It’s nice to get your face out there so people get to have a positive experience with police.”

—  Officer Quantrell Priest, Geneva Police Department

Priest, 38, has been a police officer in Geneva for five years.

He works the 3 to 11 p.m. shift – and he loves that, too.

“It’s my favorite shift. It gets the most calls, which is fine,” Priest said. “You get exposed to a lot more than you do at midnight, where you might not get a call for weeks. Or days when most people are at work.”

As he drives around, Priest is known to pull over, get out and play football or catch with kids he sees in the park.

“It’s nice to get your face out there so people get to have a positive experience with police,” Priest said. “It’s just that if people see us out and about, don’t be afraid to step up and say hello. If you have something you want to share, have some thoughts, wave us down and say hello. And we can go from there.”

Priest and his wife, Ashley, recently married in December.

“I think that he embodies everything that a cop should be,” Ashley said of her husband. “At home, he’s just so even-keeled all the time. Very thoughtful and empathetic about other people and situations. He gives everyone the benefit of the doubt.”

People have an idea that policing in the Chicago area is about “running and gunning,” she said.

“But it’s not really what policing is. It’s more about safety and confidence in the community,” Ashley said.

“That patience he’s gotten from being a special education teacher very easily transferred over to the policing world, where it can be high stress and things can change in a second,” Ashley said. “A lot of time, he is pushing for the best outcome.”