Assistant Police Chief Chris Houtz is set to retire after working with the Lehigh University Police Department for 25 years.
Houtz first started working at Lehigh in 2001. He began his career in patrol and worked in investigations before being appointed as assistant police chief.
He said his time with LUPD gave him the opportunity to develop different projects for Lehigh.
Houtz had the initial idea to introduce therapy dogs, helping to integrate them more into university events. He said this was one of the biggest projects he was proud to have worked on, as it provided immense support to the community.
Over his career with LUPD, his work has also included intentional interactions with the community.
While working in investigations, Houtz spoke with survivors of sexual assault, assisting the Office of Survivor Support and Intimacy Education to help and be a person of support as best as he could.
Houtz also worked to develop HawkWatch, Lehigh’s safety app that provides emergency alerts for campus safety, conducting the initial research for it before the project took off. He said this is one of the projects he is most satisfied with, as students use the app more than they realize.
Houtz said his advice to students and his successors is to communicate, because maintaining safety for the Lehigh community requires partnerships and team effort.
Throughout his time with the force, he said he worked with various people with different personalities. He said this made it important to be honest with people and reason with others in a way that makes sense to them, which helps to be more approachable.
Elizabeth Miller Coleman, the director of administration for LUPD, has worked with Houtz for almost 19 years. She said he’s someone she can count on.
Coleman said Houtz is a loyal and dependable employee with a good heart whose presence alone will be missed.
“He wasn’t afraid to take on new projects or take a call if we were busy,” Coleman said. “He was always someone that you could look up to or someone that you could ask for help.”
She said Houtz would try to step in when others couldn’t and credits him for helping develop a relationship between LUPD and Bethlehem.
Jason Schiffer, the chief of LUPD, said he’s going to deeply miss Houtz on both a personal and professional level, and his absence will leave a large void in the department.
He said Houtz has developed strong relationships with people at Lehigh because of his good nature and willingness to help anyone and everyone, which is something that will be missed by a lot of people.
“I’ve worked with very few people in my life who get things done as quickly and as efficiently as (Houtz) does,” Schiffer said.
He said the biggest thing Houtz did for Lehigh was care, as he was always committed to doing the right thing and creating as safe an environment as possible.
He said Houtz instilled confidence in a lot of people at the police department because of the way he carried himself, and his work was the pinnacle of what they aim to achieve at LUPD.
Houtz said he is looking forward to retiring for a long time and is excited to start his new chapter and enjoy life.
Upon his retirement, he said he plans to move down south, relax and “do as little as possible.”
Schiffer said although Houtz will no longer be with the force, his work as an officer will not be forgotten.
“The way he performed his job, I think he was looked at by many, myself included, as somebody that inspired confidence in the work that we were doing,” Schiffer said.