Lt. Jermaine Harris

Jermaine Harris is a 23-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. He currently serves as a Lieutenant where he develops community-based solutions to violence prevention by collaborating with law enforcement and nonprofit partners. Jermaine is a Chicago native who was born on the city’s West Side in the Austin community and is now a resident of North Lawndale. He is a graduate of Whitney Young High School and a United States Marine Corps veteran.

Jermaine holds pride in his ability to explore nontraditional policing roles. At the heart of his philosophy to positively impact the lives of Chicagoans is a goal to employ social justice as a violence prevention strategy. Addressing issues of access and equity has yielded positive results in both reducing violence and improving the quality of life for residents in some of the city’s most under-resourced neighborhoods.

Jermaine was selected to serve on Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s Public Safety Transition Subcommittee. In 2019 he also served on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s transition team for Public Safety and Accountability. He was a working group member of the National Police Foundation Council on Policing Reforms and Race and currently serves as the Chairperson of the State of Illinois Racial Profiling Prevention and Data Oversight Board. Jermaine is a University of Chicago Civic Leadership Academy alum, a Leadership Greater Chicago Signature Fellow, and a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. He was named an Eisenhower USA Justice Fellow when he traveled to Ireland and the United Kingdom to explore police and community partnership building. In recognition of the impact he has made in improving safety outcomes, Jermaine was invited to serve as a featured speaker during the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. 

Jermaine has also co-founded two premier community organizations: Chicago Westside Police & Youth Sports Conference, a sports-based youth development program that serves 1,000 youth annually and Community Leadership Fellows, a grassroots leadership development program for emerging leaders of color in Chicago. 

He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice from Kaplan University and a Master’s Degree in Public Safety Administration from Calumet College of St Joseph.