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Stephenson was sworn in on June 11, as the 23rd chief of the Goshen Police Department, succeeding Chief José Miller, who officially retired earlier this month. The oath of office was administered by Mayor Gina Leichty at the historic Goshen Theater, with city officials, police personnel, and community members in attendance.
ABC57's Leo Goldman interviewed the new Chief, and Stephenson shared how happy he is to be stepping into the role.
He said he was pleasantly surprised when the position opened up, as the job would be bringing him back to a state he likes, and where he's spent plenty of time. When accepting the job offer, "I was elated, I was just so excited, it's a huge honor," said Stephenson.
This is not Stephenson's first time working in Indiana, as he once spent more than 20 years with the campus police department at IU Bloomington.
As Stephenson steps into his new position of chief, he tells us "My biggest priority is to get to know people. We're having a lot of conversations, and internally, within the police department, we're having collective conversations, trying to determine what do we do well that we can expand upon, where are areas that we need to improve."
Stephenson tells ABC57 he is also considering some staff restructuring and changing where people are assigned.
Chief Stephenson's most recent employment was in North Carolina, as the director of public safety for the University of North Carolina school system. He says coming in as an external hire can bring a fresh perspective to his new staff, but there's a flip side.
"It's a little bit of a disadvantage in the fact that I've got to start fresh and get to know people and earn trust and build relationships that if I had risen through the ranks internally, obviously I would have already established," said Stephenson.
And in modern policing, it's not just about the police work, because the public expects transparency.
This transition in leadership could mark the beginning of a new era for Goshen's police department. In the recent past, on-camera interviews with Goshen police have been rare, so ABC57 asked Chief Stephenson about how he plans to work with journalists.
"I'll probably be the person who does that. When I was in Bloomington, it seems like a lot of people in this profession don't care to do that, they're kind of afraid and camera shy I guess maybe. I've never been that way, so sometimes I've been the public information officer by default, so I'll be handling that role at the police department," said Stephenson.