For more than 25 years, Joshua Wallace has watched the city of Chicago change around him, and with it, the realities of police work. When he started his career, most criminal groups operated out in the open. They claimed territory, followed familiar routines, and behaved in ways that any experienced officer could identify after spending time in the neighborhood.
Today, his work looks very different. Wallace now serves inside the Criminal Networks Group within the Chicago Police Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, where the groups he monitors form, adapt, and disappear at a speed that would have been hard to imagine in the late 90s.
He oversees investigations that rely on cooperation between federal, state, and local agencies, and much of that work involves following conversations inside encrypted apps, social media platforms, and gaming channels that replaced the face-to-face interactions officers once relied on.
When he describes the differences between then and now, the direction of his career becomes easier to see. Technology altered the way networks form, communicate, and recruit, and their activity became faster and more difficult to predict. As the work changed, he adapted with it, expanding his skills as the threats around him evolved and his responsibilities grew.
“I stopped looking at these groups as street operations and started seeing them as digital ecosystems that happen to touch the street,” he explained.
Through each change, Wallace learned what success in modern policing requires. With criminal networks moving quicker than ever, leaders must stay grounded in truth and be willing to shift with the reality unfolding right in front of them.
“Law enforcement needs to be ready for networks that evolve in real time,” he said. “The traditional separation between cyber and street work has to collapse. That shift in mindset is what carried me through my career, and it is what the future demands.”
Seeing Crime Through a Modern Lens
As Wallace moved deeper into investigative work, his understanding of modern crime became shaped less by theory and more by what was happening in front of him. Patterns revealed themselves in the small details, and they didn’t match the assumptions he once had about criminal groups. The more time he spent studying their behavior, the more he realized how quickly they moved from one type of crime to another.
“What looks like a narcotics crew today is running vehicle thefts tomorrow and retail crime the next day,” he said. “They treat the landscape like an open market, constantly adjusting to whatever brings profit with the least exposure.”
He also paid closer attention to how younger people were being pulled into these spaces.
Much of their involvement started online, long before they ever met someone in person. Their choices often reflected digital culture more than the neighborhoods they were from, which added another layer of complexity to understanding their involvement.
Inside investigations, the tools offenders used were changing just as quickly. Some relied on drones or counter-surveillance to watch police response times. Others experimented with AI to hide their identities or manipulate the information officers depended on. These weren’t theoretical threats on the horizon, but tactics showing up in active cases.
“These trends are accelerating, not emerging,” he said.
Holding the Line When It Counts
Now in a high-level position, Joshua Wallace believes that his effectiveness as a leader hinges on how well he can handle the most challenging moments. Complex operations, public pressure, and sudden changes inside the department have all tested his resolve. He’s found that the only way to move through those situations is by holding himself to three core values.
“I anchor every decision to three non-negotiables,” he shared. “Legitimacy, mission clarity, and consequence ownership.”
If a decision undermines public trust or falls outside the boundaries of the law, he sees it as a sign that the plan needs to be redirected. When an operation brings legal, ethical, and operational questions all at the same time, he goes back to the basics, cutting through the noise and identifying what cannot be compromised.
“Mission clarity follows,” he explained. “Strip the problem down to the objective, the authority you’re operating under, and the limits that protect both the community and the people carrying out the work.”
The final principle he relies on is consequence ownership. If he can’t openly justify, defend, and take accountability for a decision — both in public and in full detail — then he knows it’s the wrong choice.
“Once those anchors are set, the rest becomes structural,” Wallace said. “Remove ambiguity, document the rationale, tighten supervision, and ensure that every operational step is traceable and defensible.”
He believes this is how leaders protect the integrity of the team, safeguard the credibility of the agency, and ensure the work can continue without compromise.
“Ethical pressure points don’t get managed with hope,” he said. “They get managed with discipline and transparency.”
During times of public scrutiny, Wallace relies on those principles even more, understanding how quickly doubt can spread inside a department when the pressure around the organization intensifies. Officers begin questioning themselves, hesitating in moments that only make their job more difficult.
Through experience, he has learned that there’s a right way to handle these situations, which starts with being honest and upfront.
“Morale holds when people believe their work still matters and their leader is steady,” he explained. “I focus on giving people the truth without theatrics, the mission without distortion, and the expectation without apology. Teams respond to clarity.”
Wallace reminds his teams that their work protects victims, communities, and the overall stability of the city. That way, their primary responsibility stays front and center, even when a tense situation causes temporary discomfort.
He also makes sure supervisors are aligned, recognizing that internal issues can be more damaging than outside criticism.
“The faster you eliminate confusion, the faster the team re-centers itself,” he said.
Above all, he stays present with his teams, always ready to answer a question or take a call. In his view, the absence of a leader can shake people more than anything happening outside the department, and he wants his officers to know that they’re never expected to carry the burden alone.
Keeping Collaboration Credible at Every Step
A significant portion of Wallace’s work depends on cross-collaboration between agencies, and he’s seen firsthand how much those relationships can affect the speed and strength of an investigation. Some partnerships struggle, not because people lack the willingness to cooperate, but because they hesitate when they’re unsure how their intelligence will be treated once it leaves their hands.
“That hesitation creates gaps,” he pointed out. “Those gaps turn into missed opportunities, duplicated work, and preventable harm. The most overlooked element is disciplined information trust.”
Within his own teams, he works hard to build that trust by enforcing strict standards for how intelligence is handled. His officers confirm information before forwarding it, document how it will be used, and maintain a tight chain of accountability.
“When partners see that level of discipline, they engage without reservation,” he noted.
Wallace also ensures his officers understand where their authority begins and ends, the legal frameworks they operate under, and the intent behind every exchange of information. That knowledge keeps operations clean, credible, and aligned with each agency’s role.
To him, effective collaboration comes down to proving over and over again that shared intelligence will be treated responsibly. That kind of confidence takes time to earn and constant precision to maintain, which is why he sees it as the piece of collaboration that most agencies underestimate.
Wallace’s Definition of Impact
When Joshua Wallace thinks about what matters most as he looks toward the rest of his career, the officers he has mentored and the communities he has served come to mind. He hopes to be remembered as an honest, consistent leader who focused on building up the people around him.
“I want officers to say they served under someone who told them the truth, held the line, and never asked them to compromise who they were to get the job done,” he shared. “I want them to remember that I expected discipline, demanded accountability, and still understood the human weight of the work.”
When it comes to the community, he hopes people will say they felt protected, listened to, and supported for all the right reasons.
“My path has been shaped by people who showed me what real leadership looks like when the pressure is highest,” he reflected. “If anything endures, I want it to be that same standard carried forward by the next generation.”
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