It’s time for change to come in earnest at the Northern Illinois University Police Department.

The NIU police need to be more accountable to the public and more open to working with other law enforcement agencies. To do that, new leadership is needed.

University officials have stuck with NIU Police Chief Donald Grady through past trouble spots. Grady was placed on paid leave in 2009 after the editor of NIU’s student newspaper said Grady harangued him for three hours about the paper’s coverage of a questionable police hire. Grady was reinstated a month later after a performance review.