Lincoln Police Capt. Tarvis Banks poses next to a framed photograph of Donnamarie Jones, a former LPD public safety officer at the northwest police station near 27th and Holdrege streets.
After the retirement of former Capt. Anthony Butler earlier this month, the Lincoln Police Department will turn to a Lincoln native to run the northwest team.
Tarvis Banks, a Lincoln High School and University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate, officially took his seat in the captain's office at 27th and Holdrege streets Monday, succeeding Butler, who recommended the 37-year-old upon his departure after 35 years on the force.
Banks, who lives in northwest Lincoln with his wife and three kids, said his first priority as captain will be to attend community group meetings and talk with northwest Lincoln businesses in an effort to learn what that area of Lincoln wants and expects from its officers.
"I just want to be very present," Banks said, noting his own recognition in the area and community-based policing are "vitally important" to the department's role in the city.
"Instead of saying, 'Yo, who's the captain of the team?' And they're like, 'I don't know, I've never seen the guy.' I want it to be, 'Oh, yeah, it's Capt. Banks. I saw him last month,' or 'I saw him a couple weeks ago.'"
Banks' promotion marks the latest stop in a rapid ascent for the former SWAT team operator and one-time internal affairs sergeant. After joining the department in 2007, Banks became a sergeant in 2015 and was promoted to captain in 2020.
Now, less than two years later, he's running one of Lincoln's four geographical teams — a job that Assistant Chief Jason Stille described as "highly coveted" and reliant on community policing and visibility."
"It's really about building relationships," Stille said. "Tarvis has done a very good job since being promoted (to captain in 2020) of continuing, having continuous forward progression.
"He's volunteered for other committees and such within the agency. He's put in the work. He continues to be a great ambassador for the agency."
For Banks, the promotion represents a culmination of "timing, a little bit of luck and just the right people noticing my hard work," he said.
"As soon as I got the position of captain, I knew for sure I wanted to be a team captain," Banks said. "(This) was the first thing that came to my mind that I wanted to do, where I wanted to be."
For the department, Banks' promotion represents what has become an anomaly. Upon Butler's retirement, Banks became the highest-ranking Black officer at LPD, the only Black member of the agency's command staff and one of four Black officers at the department.
Still, he will be the third consecutive Black captain to run the northwest precinct, following Butler and former Capt. Genelle Moore, who left the northwest team in 2011 and retired from policing six years later.
"You feel like you do have those shoes to fill, as far as going from Genelle to Butler and now to me," said Banks, who was promoted to captain in October 2020 following a tumultuous summer in which he said he pondered his own future in policing.
"You feel like, 'All right, I'm the next person up' in regards to being a Black captain, especially on this team. It's kinda been the last few — over a decade now."
His arrival as captain of the northwest team will mark the first time Banks has worked in the geographical region on a full-time basis, having spent most of his career patrolling south Lincoln or working at the department's downtown headquarters, first in internal affairs and more recently as a duty command captain.
Banks will supervise policing north of West A Street and Cornhusker Highway and west of North 40th Street after a shake-up of the department's teams in January eliminated the center team and realigned the city into four geographical segments.
That shift moved northwest officers, who previously worked at the department's 10th Street headquarters, to 1501 N. 27th St., the former home of the center team.
"He occupies the same office that I did," said Stille, once the captain of the center team, who relayed the news of Banks' promotion in April.Â
Banks said he was initially nervous as he walked to Stille's office for the meeting, internally wondering what he did wrong.
"It was kind of random, so I was, like, 'What did I do?'" Banks recalled, laughing.
For his part, Stille said he often forgets what it's like to be on the other side of the desk.
"I would have been, like, 'Uh, oh. Holy smokes,'" Stille said, adding that 99 out of 100Â times he requests an officer it's for a commendation or just a conversation. "For me it was no big deal. ... I sort of forgot the impact that might have on calling someone to the principal's office."
Walking out of the meeting, though, Banks felt differently.
"It didn't sink in until a couple hours afterwards, I was, like, 'Oh, man, I'm gonna be the next team captain of the northwest team,'" he said. "And the excitement set in from there."
Lincoln Police Capt. Tarvis Banks poses next to a framed photograph of Donnamarie Jones, a former LPD public safety officer at the northwest police station near 27th and Holdrege streets.