Syracuse Police Chief Tony Ciriello has been chosen to serve on the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice Advisory Board at Indiana State University. The invitation to join the board was received Tuesday, March 25. He has accepted the position and will assume his duties in the fall.

“I was surprised and honored to be chosen for such an important position,” stated Ciriello. This request follows a long list of boards and organizations Ciriello is associated with.

Ciriello is currently president of the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police, holds a certification as a medicolegal death investigator, Center for Disease Control Certified Infant Death investigator/instructor, serves on the Indiana Department of Health Maternal Mortality Review Team and the Indiana coordinator for the U.S. Department of Justice “NAMUS” project, which looks into and assists in identifying unidentified human remains. He was also an arson investigator for the state of Indiana before beginning his 32 years in law enforcement first with the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department and ultimately as chief of Syracuse Police Department.

Ciriello also serves on the Syracuse/Wawasee Chamber Board of Directors, Syracuse/Wawasee Rotary Board of Directors, moderator of the Kosciusko Youth Leadership Academy and Warsaw Breakfast Optimist Club, precinct committeeman, vice president of the Kosciusko County Shrine Club and Shrine Circus chairman.

The request was received from Dr. Franklin T. Wilson, assistant professor for the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at ISU. As a member of the advisory board, Ciriello would be required coming to the ISU campus in Terre Haute for one or two meetings, which entail providing suggestions on two strategic goals the department has established along with four to five objectives for each goal. The strategic goals are improve recruitment of potential students both at the undergraduate and graduate level in the region and improve job placement success among students upon graduation.

The Department of Criminolgy and Criminal Justice is the largest major at ISU, with approximately 800 majors, 51 percent femal and 49 percent male. The department is one of the oldest and largest in the region. The faculty is noted for both their level of scholarship and diversity of research expertise. A large portion of the faculty have worked in the criminal justice system ranging from therapists, wardens, parole and probation officers, prosecuting attorneys, research analysts for juvenile corrections, law enforcement officers, among other positions.

The faculty is widely published in journals, books and trade publications with many of their research and expertise featured by media outlets. The faculty is also nationally and internationally recognized for their research and scholarship, holding positions ranging from division chairs to United Nations advisory positions regarding terrorism.

Graduates of the program are regularly employed in agencies around the country at local, state and federal levels of government, with graduate students going on to pursue PH.D’s in a variety of doctoral programs around the country.