Benjamin Tucker is taking on his new role within the Toledo Police Department with a clear head and a heart full of love.

Love for the department, for the city — and the people who make up both — will help with how the soon-to-be deputy chief governs.

The longtime police officer, with 31 years of service with the department, officially will be promoted from his current rank of captain during a ceremony in Toledo City Council chambers at 9 a.m. Friday. He has been the acting deputy chief since George Kral was promoted to chief late last year, after Chief William Moton retired.

As deputy chief, Captain Tucker will oversee the administrative services and support division, which puts him in charge of supporting detectives and street crews, making sure they have the resources and information necessary to do their jobs.

That is crucial, he said. He wants the people he works with and the ones who work for him to love the police department and city of Toledo as much as he does.

“I’ve got a heart for people,” he said. “I’m always thinking about the people who work for me. The people on the street and how I do what I do affects them.”

For Captain Tucker, no matter what assignment he’s had, the job always has been about helping people. That, simply put, is why he wanted to be a police officer in the first place.

Before coming to Toledo, Captain Tucker worked for three years as a Detroit police reserve officer, waiting to be hired permanently. On the day Toledo hired him, Detroit laid off 1,200 officers, he recalled.

Before going into police work, he worked as an electrician for Ford Motor Co., but after he had been laid off twice from Ford, he decided to look for better job security.

In 1994, when he was promoted to sergeant, Captain Tucker was assigned to community services and worked with six other sergeants — one for each of seven sectors at the time — “to bridge the gap between the community and the police department.”

The work community-resources officers did then, and continue to do now, has helped Toledo avoid major blowups like the one in Ferguson, Mo., after Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, was shot and killed by Officer Darren Wilson, a white man.

“Toledo has always had a good relationship with its police department,” Captain Tucker said. “There are people they trust who work on the police department. People they know work on the police department. When there’s an issue, they go to those people and get the real skinny on what’s happening.”

Captain Tucker said going to Block Watch meetings and picnics and attending various community events during his time in community affairs kept him stabilized before his promotion to lieutenant in 2001.

“For the most part, officers go from call to call and don’t get to see the impact on the lives of people, and they don’t get to go to the ‘good people’s’ houses. They go from bad situation to bad situation, and you can become jaded,” he said.

What also help keeps him centered is his ministry at Lighthouse Fellowship Prayer Tower in Ottawa Lake, where he’s been for the last 15 years. He’s also an organist.

“I deal with people all the time,” he said. “I see this as the center of my ministry. I get to bring the community together with the people that love people enough to put their lives on the line. I get to show both of them that we have to work together.”

Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.

First Published January 25, 2015, 5:00 a.m.