New Granville police chief Michael Padilla ‘excited’ to become part of community

GRANVILLE – After an exhaustive search, Granville Police Department now has a new chief.

Michael Padilla was sworn in as the new police chief during the board’s January meeting to succeed retired Chief Kevin Moore.

Padilla, who most recently worked as an officer in Oglesby, has a total of 16 years of law enforcement experience.

Padilla started his career as an officer and served two years at the Oregon Police Department in Oregon, Illinois. He then took a job with the Oglesby Police Department to be closer to his hometown and worked there for 14 years.

“My positions at the Oglesby Police Department included being a field training officer, juvenile officer, detective and I also served in supervisory role as a sergeant for the past five years,” he said.

“I’m excited to be a part of the Granville community. I’ve always liked being a police officer in a small town where I can get to know everyone. I plan to move to the Granville area with my family from Oglesby in the near future so we can be a part of the community.

“I will have an open door policy to the community if they need to address any concerns they may have. I’m a firm believer in community-oriented policing, especially in a small town, and will try to build on our relationships with the public. I also plan on building on our relationships with other local police agencies and working as partners with them.”

“My main priority will be to keep the citizens, businesses and schools safe. I have some big shoes to fill replacing Police Chief Kevin Moore. He has done a great job for the city for the past 30 years. He helped make it a smooth transition for me to take over his position.”

Moore, while thanking the board for its support over the course of his 30-year tenure, gave his endorsement of Padilla, telling the board he wasn’t going anywhere until he believed they found the best candidate possible to replace him.

“Mike’s going to fit in the village really well,” Moore said. “I wasn’t going to leave until I felt comfortable.”

Padilla said one of his goals for the police department is to keep up with all the innovative law enforcement technology that will help the department run more efficiently.

“I plan to look for new training courses to help keep our officers safe and well prepared to handle any type of major incidents. I also plan on implementing some community programs, such as the Shop with a Cop program,” he said.

“I think one of the big challenges for here and most small size departments is finding and retaining good personnel. I have a great group of full-time and part-time officers here currently and would like to find ways to incentivize those officers to stay here.”

Padilla concluded: “It’s a big honor. I have some big shoes to fill, but I’m here to stay.”

Granville Police Department has three full-time and four part-time officers.