Unique Experiences Give Unique Opportunities

The wisdom and mentorship of seven decades of real-world criminal justice experience among three faculty members is what sets Cedarville University’s criminal justice program apart from others in the country. This level of experience that is invested into each student is one of the reasons why Cedarville’s program is flourishing while producing new law enforcement professionals.  

In the past five years, nearly ninety students have earned criminal justice degrees from Cedarville—and nearly all of them have been successfully placed in law enforcement positions. The impact of Cedarville’s criminal justice professors on their students is felt strongly by employers in the field as a tangible difference. The breadth of Cedarville alumni’s knowledge has led to a 96% placement rate after graduation, and alumni have established themselves as pursuers of excellence in the realm of justice. One of these employers is the City of Beavercreek, which currently employs three recent Cedarville alumni on its police force.  

“Our officers from Cedarville have been professional and mature in every area of their work with us and have been open-minded to learning our way of doing police work,” said Jeff Fiorita, Beavercreek Chief of Police. “Our way of delivering service involves the utmost integrity and we strive to be respected and embraced in our community.  We have a great reputation of delivering professional law enforcement service, and our Cedarville graduates easily fit into that culture.” 

The Cedarville faculty shaping the next generation of criminal justice is led by Dr. Patrick Oliver, director of the criminal justice program, Steve Meacham, associate professor of criminal justice and Greg Thompson, professor of criminal justice. For these professors, criminal justice is more than a career; it’s a calling to serve and protect America’s citizens. Each has spent their professional career in various areas of law enforcement. Each has felt the call to use those experiences and lessons to mentor and equip the next generation of criminal justice.  

Oliver, Meacham and Thompson provide unique views into different angles of the complex world of criminal justice. Still, they each provide insightful information that provides the students with professional guidance that has led to many career opportunities.  

“In most criminal justice schools, the majority of professors have doctoral degrees with research experience, but many have spent little or sometimes no time in the field,” said Oliver. “All of us at Cedarville have had enough time in the field to retire from active duty and start a second career in the college classroom. We bring a lifetime of experience to our students.”   

The importance of mentors and guidance from those in the field is perhaps best understood by Oliver, who found his police calling through his father, a Cleveland homicide detective. 

Through observing his father’s work, Oliver maintains that he was equipped to reach farther and faster in that career than his father ever did. Oliver spent 27 years in various police organizations, including being the chief of police at Cleveland Metroparks at age 31. He also served as a police chief in Cleveland, Ohio, and Grandview Heights—a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, as well as Fairborn, Ohio.  

However, Oliver doesn’t teach alone at Cedarville. His colleagues, Meacham and Thompson, also bring a new perspective to their classrooms forged from decades of devotion to justice. 

Meacham served the New York State Police for 31 years as a State Trooper, a criminal investigator and even a hostage and crisis negotiator. Across three decades on the ground level of law enforcement, Meacham has witnessed both the highs and lows of the United States criminal justice system and uses these experiences to prepare his students for the hard realities that criminal justice brings them face to face with. 

Thompson, who joined the faculty in 2023, retired as a colonel from the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. During this time, Thompson prosecuted cases and defended clients at military court-martial proceedings. Additionally, he served as a Staff Judge Advocate and also as a legal adviser on matters of national security in the Indo-Pacific region. Prior to joining the Air Force, Thompson served as a prosecuting attorney for three years at the Pima County Attorney's Office in Tucson, Arizona where he prosecuted felony and misdemeanor offenses. He now shares his criminal law and national security experience and expertise with students in the classroom. 

“To equip these students for a career in criminal justice, we can’t sugarcoat things, and students in specific classes will encounter real life crime scene photos while realizing that the violence and suffering of the world are nothing like television portrays,” said Meacham. “I can bring my students face-to-face with actual criminal casefiles so that students can understand the process involved in criminal investigation through every step.”   

Each criminal justice professor at Cedarville University places their own lives and stories on display to give students a glimpse at the reality of what criminal justice looks like in the world today. Oliver, Meacham and Thompson alike have seen a heavy share of suffering and harshness in the criminal world, but have also seen how justice triumphs over the hardest of situations. To Cedarville’s criminal justice professors, it is their duty to share both these harsh realities and earnest hopes to prepare a generation of criminal justice professionals that are raised in both excellence and awareness of the duty that lay before them. 

“The professors here have shown me abundantly that the criminal justice system works, but the people in it can falter,” said Jacob Small, a current Cedarville criminal justice student. “Their reason to be here at Cedarville is to build a better criminal justice system by training better criminal justice servants. They know that if we adhere to biblical principles and we apply the criminal justice system from a biblical standpoint, it will stand stronger and we will excel as examples in our field.”