F/Lt. Christopher Gerard

GLADSTONE — The Michigan State Police’s Gladstone Post has a new person at the helm.

At the beginning of July, F/Lt. Christopher Gerard took the reins at MSP District 8 Post 84. Gerard is replacing former Post Commander Greg ­Cunningham after 31 years with the agency.

Gerard is a 1996 graduate of Baraga High School and holds a ­bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Lake Superior State University and a master’s degree in criminal justice from Northern Michigan University.

Gerard began his law enforcement career with the Meridian Township Police Department in 2003.

In 2010, Gerard enlisted in the Michigan State Police as a ­m­­ember of the 122nd Trooper Recruit School.

His MSP career started at the Wayland Post and later transferred to Wakefield. From there, Gerard continued his career at posts in Calumet, Negaunee and Rockford.

In 2019, Gerard received a promotion to sergeant in the government relations department at the MSP headquarters in Lansing.

Roughly two years later, he transferred to the Negaunee Post as a uniform sergeant. In 2023, Gerard returned to the Wakefield Post, this time as the post commander.

Now, Gerard is in Gladstone as the new post commander and has his sights set on serving the community.

While Gerard may have a much shorter commute, his staff more than doubled in the new position.

In Wakefield, Gerard over saw 14 to 15 people at the one work site.

“Here, I’ve got two work sites and I’ve got total 27 troopers and four sergeants. And we also have two detective sergeants that work out the building,” Gerard said.

He said the increase in staff is definitely the biggest change for him in his new role.

“My priorities are really engaging the community and making sure that our members here at the Gladstone Post and the Manistique Outpost have everything that they need in order to provide the best service that they can provide,” Gerard said.

After taking care of the in-house needs, Gerard wants to make sure the MSP is working well with local agencies.

“I want to make sure that we as the Michigan State Police are working collaboratively with not only our local law enforcement partners, but all public safety agencies,” he said.

He said one of the issues he is going to work to address is traffic in the area.

“I drive an hour here and I noticed that excessive speed is definitely an issue, definitely a public safety issue,” Gerard said.

“We will do the best we can with the staffing that we have to address that.”

He added that his other priorities will center around crime prevention, criminal investigations and community engagement.

“I’d say it’s a passion of mine to make sure that we are connecting with the community and you know, whether that’s attending community events, providing trooper’s to walk through schools (and) you know, putting on different programs and things like that,” he said.

Gerard reiterated that these priorities and goals can to be accomplished alone.

“We can’t do that alone, we can’t do any of this alone.”

Gerard could not say how long he will be in command at the Gladstone Post, but he plans to be there for the foreseeable future.

“I just want the public to know that we are going to do the very best that we can do in order to provide the best service to the public,” Gerard said.