Lou Hayes Jr

My name is Lou Hayes, Jr. I grew up a tinkering boy – perpetually building, diagnosing, deconstructing, inventing, and analyzing with my brothers and dad. (Mom and grandma taught me how to cook!)

After Catholic prep school, I attended public university for Mechanical Engineering (and rugby!), but dropped out to follow in Dad's footsteps as a street cop. 

Since 1998, I have been a full-time Police Officer/Detective/Sergeant for a suburban Chicago police department. Some of my assignments include: Patrol, Field Training Officer (FTO), Criminal Investigations, Firearms & Tactics Training Unit, Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), and Tactical (SWAT + medical).

With some SWAT colleagues (and using the theories of deceased Air Force Colonel John Boyd), I developed The Illinois Model - a cyclical, non-linear, problem-solving process for police officers. It proved to be a unique endeavor - one that prioritizes life, Constitutional objectives, incident strategy, and tactics in rapidly changing and high-stakes circumstances. Since then, The Illinois Model has expanded greatly to serve as a broad philosophic theory on and pathway to human and organizational adaptability.

As a teen, my first few jobs gave me plenty of grease under my fingernails. My bias towards the technical and industrial gave me a rather mechanical toolbox - both physically and mentally! But my career positions as Detective and educator have drawn me into the realm of emotional intelligence and what industrialized folks might label the "soft" skills of life. 

I served as my department's Training Coordinator and Firearms Range Master. As such, I designed, organized, and planned educational and development programs for sworn (armed) and civilian staff members. 

I currently hold the assignment of Detective Sergeant, working with a diverse team of criminal investigators, intelligence analysts, school resource/juvenile officers, and evidence/property custodians. The bulk of my work is focused on Chicago street gang crime, particularly auto theft in the metro area. I'm collaterally assigned to a countywide investigative task force that responds to homicides, officer-involved shootings, & other violent crimes. 

My passion lays with intelligence-led policing -- at the strategic, tactical, & technical levels. This includes my work to implement a virtual multi-agency "real-time crime center" concept in Chicagoland, across literally hundreds of police agencies. It's slow going; but it's going.

In 2021, I returned (remotely!) to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Gies College of Business, to finish a degree in Finance. (You can read a little about my journey here.) I'm pounding away one-class-at-a-time!

My curiosity and self-study has brought me to learn about generalism, adult learning science, human performance under stress, decision-making, leadership, strategic mindsets, project management, and complex adaptive systems. My relentless asking of challenging questioning that begin with How and Why have earned me the nickname Tactical Philosopher. 

I am pursuing and open to opportunities to work with a variety of industries and organizations. I speak to large groups...and moderate small intimate workshops. Content extends well beyond policing, into the realms of learning science, education reform, and human problem-solving.  

Connect with me on LinkedIn. I also write a column on this website dedicated to public speaking called Presentation Hack, where I give tips to better workshops, webinars, lectures, and conference presentations.