Instead, his office is in Chicago Police Department headquarters on South Michigan Avenue, 5th floor, right next to Police Superintendent Jody Weis'. Here is where the 31-year-old Masters performs what he allows might be the third best job in Chicago (next to Mayor Richard M. Daley and Weis): chief of staff to the superintendent. It is, by his own account, a labor-intensive, absorbing position that taxes all the resources of a young Chicagoan of considerable gifts.

Masters' appointment to the position in April 2008 raised some eyebrows. Weis took over the job earlier that year after spending 23 years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation and almost immediately came under fire for changes he made in department leadership and policy. A few months later, Daley replaced Patrick Daly, a former FBI agent and a good friend of Weis', with Masters, who had been an assistant to Daley since 2006 (his formal title was assistant to the mayor for public safety).

A reporter for Crain's Chicago Business speculated at the time that Masters "had been dispatched to steady ... Weis, an outsider off to a rocky start." Weis told Crain's that it was he who wanted Masters, because "I can count on him for what I really need: honest feedback."

Masters' job has been depicted elsewhere as being the eyes and ears of the superintendent. In his official bio, he is described as "helping to direct the policy, operations, and strategy" of the department.

The man who holds the job answers at greater length during an interview in the busy police headquarters, where just down the hall Weis and some of his lieutenants hold a press conference to show off the newest high-tech equipment for catching bad guys, some of it gee-whiz amazing.

What he does, the well-spoken, gracious Masters says, is "probably one of the most interesting and challenging and rewarding things anybody would have the opportunity to do." While the job changes on a daily basis, a phrase he repeats several times, "in a general sense, I serve at the pleasure of the superintendent. I work to ensure that his vision for the department gets carried out through the strategies we're putting in place, the goals and objectives he has for the department."

That, he says, can mean anything and everything, from meeting with families who have been victims of violence, to planning an anti-violence campaign, to working with the department's news affairs office, to parsing legal and intergovernmental issues, to working with aldermen or state representatives or city officials.

It also means "dealing with anything that could come up in a given day with other city departments or agencies and making sure the mayor's and superintendent's shared vision for the department is being fulfilled," Masters says. "It keeps me busy 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

In a typical day, Masters, who is single, will rise about 4:45 a.m. and "real quick check the newspapers. A lot of what we're going to be dealing with on a given day, both from a press perspective and operationally, tends to be driven in some measure by what's being reported in the media," he says. "The first instinctive reaction of anybody who works in the police department when they wake up is to reach for a BlackBerry. It's a little frightening. I have actually worked it out so I can reach for it before it goes off (in the morning). I'm not sure what that says," he says with a quick laugh.

He works out from 5 to 6:30, then gets to his desk around 7. "In between, we've received numerous updates throughout the night about what's been going on in the city, whether crime-related or otherwise," he says. "Then I start working through the issues that have come up in the paper," not just dealing with what has already happened but looking to see if something could be done better the next time, he says.

"You try and be as creative as you can and focus on trying to give the men and women of the department, who are really the hardest workers of any of us, the tools and training and equipment they need, so it can really cut across a lot of avenues," he says. His admiration for the cop on the street is a theme he returns to often.

Masters is not entirely new to the workings of the CPD. In his previous position in the mayor's office, he served as Daley's liaison to the department as well as to the Chicago Fire Department and the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, a job in which he "worked to formulate, implement and oversee public safety policy and operations for the city of Chicago," according to the official bio. In that capacity, he worked with former superintendents Phil Kline and Terry Hillard, among other top police brass.

There's nothing in Masters' background, though, that screams "Chicago Police Department."

He was brought up on the North Side of the city, along with a brother and a sister; his parents belonged to Anshe Emet Synagogue, where he celebrated his bar mitzvah. His father, Allan Masters, is a retired Cook County judge and former Chicago precinct captain, and his parents, now divorced and remarried to other people, were "very strong mentors," he says.

"There's a quote, 'I'm a part of all that I have read.' My adaptation of that is you are a part of all that you experience," he says. "I have been very blessed to have great parents and had great opportunities presented to me."

He grew up with "a very good strong work ethic," he says. "My parents, my family all stress that. My parents always stressed service. That is a very big part of the Jewish tradition, giving back. I always grew up with the idea that, to whom much is given, much is expected. I find that to be very much in line with my faith and our traditions, our beliefs. I've tried to live that in the ways that I could," he says.

At the University of Michigan, where he graduated with a major in history, "I got much more involved with Hillel and with community service, which has always been an interest of mine," he says. He also became involved in Al Gore's presidential campaign while in college and worked as an advance man and in other capacities for the former vice president up through the November 2000 election.

Masters took a few years off after college, worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C., then went on to study at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, where he received a master's degree in international relations. His thesis subject was "the use of Judeo-phobic conspiracy theory in the Arab Middle East." He traveled extensively to research it and spent a considerable amount of time in Israel.

"It was a very interesting time to be studying international relations," he says. "I was in the Middle East when the United States began its offensive into Iraq in March 2003. Being able to study abroad during that time with exposure to so many different individuals and ideas and people in my program, many of whom were British and American military, was very influential to me."

As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan proceeded, "the changing nature of the geopolitics of that time sort of shaped what my thesis became. It wasn't my intended thesis subject when I went to Cambridge, but it quickly developed into that," he says.

The thesis, he explains, tracked how certain conspiracy theories, especially the blood libel, "made its way from what was really European anti-Semitism and was transformed into use by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1920s, and then got larger traction in the Arab Middle East as time went on."

That transformation continues today, he says. In many Islamist newspapers, "you see these same characterizations of Jewish people and the conspiracy theories related to Jewish people, and you can find many quotes from a variety of sources that play on those fears," he says. "I delved into why those things were being utilized - displacing what some would term the internal problems that many of these countries have onto an external enemy. You see that every time something happens, the blame is placed on Israel," which was the subject of the thesis, or "more poignantly," he says, on the Jewish people.

The thesis also discussed the reality that even years after Sept. 11, opinion polls showed that upwards of 80 percent of individuals in the Muslim world believed that Jews were behind the attacks. That belief, and the related one that all Jews who worked at the World Trade Center were told to stay home that day, "is very much alive years later," Masters says. The research for the thesis, he says, was "fascinating."

He then went on to Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Jewish Law Students Association and served as managing editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. His research focused on legal issues related to terrorism and public corruption, as well as issues facing Native Americans in contemporary society. He also did development work on a reservation in South Dakota and holds the rank of captain in the U.S. Marine Corps.

It's a background that, he says, has served him well in dealing with the thorny issues he and Weis face every day as the department deals with everything from escalating gang violence to low morale in some quarters of the force to reports of officers accused of abuse.

Despite horrific, almost nightly news reports of shootings, especially of children, the department has released statistics showing that the crime rate in Chicago dropped significantly last year, including a homicide rate that fell more than 10 percent between 2008 and 2009. In January, police reported a decline in murders, robberies, criminal sex assaults, aggravated assaults, and property offenses as compared with last year, and Weis said in a press conference that he was encouraged with the numbers.

Masters praises his boss but also gives credit for any good news to the men and women out on the streets. "These folks are out there every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, working to make the city of Chicago safe," he says. "They are running down dark alleys, walking into abandoned buildings. Often outside of their jobs, they will run into a burning building. These are men and women who out of instinct and loyalty run towards the sound of gunfire, and that's a unique characteristic."

He calls it "a great honor to sit where I do every day and at the direction of the superintendent work to make their jobs a little easier, give them the tools or the training they need to go out and serve as they do."

As for Weis, working with him "is a great honor," Masters says. "He is a great leader, a man of real integrity and vision." What the superintendent brings to the job, Masters says, is "a real strong vision of where the department should be headed." That vision, he says, involves "three p's": policing, partnerships and professionalism. "You can sort of guide where we want to go strategically with those three things in mind," he says.

Masters goes on to explain how the three principles work together. "Policing is obviously always the focus of the police department," but Weis is looking for more: "a police department that behaves professionally and that is viewed professionally and that has true, strong partnerships with the community - making friends before you need them. I think I have never seen anybody that as a superintendent could spend as much time in the community working to build real relationships with people," he says of Weis, praising his experience in the FBI and the army and his expertise in "building internal processes that ensure accountability, leadership, and his experience building partnerships."

Part of policing, of course, is crime reduction, and Masters says he and Weis spend much time strategizing on "how you can effectuate that" and "the professionalism aspect of having a police force which is respected both internally by your members but also externally by the community."

"We've had a police department that in certain comminutes has not always had an easy relationship," he says. "One thing Supt. Weis has stressed, and that we worked as his command staff to carry out, is really trying to build up those partnerships, because we need the community more than anything else."

A new initiative aims to do that just that, he says, through a public service campaign designed to get across the message "stop the silence, stop the violence. Silence kills." The PSA footage is of families who have had one or more members, often youths, killed on Chicago streets.

"These are painful stories, and there's no one better to communicate the difficulties of not having our community opening up to who these offenders are than by hearing it from the families directly," Masters says.

"It's one example of what we're doing to build those partnerships up and to break through to folks in the community and also to the youth, where you have this no-snitching mentality," he says. "So those partnerships are really crucial for us."

When Masters' morning newspaper delivers the story of another child shot or caught in gang crossfire, "it has a realness to it that, perhaps if you aren't in this kind of work, you don't necessarily read the same way," he says. "When you are out in communities that are affected by this kind of violence, there is no rational explanation of why a 3-year-old or a 15-year-old should be a victim of that kind of violence. It's very difficult because you see the families it affects, you see the police officers it affects a great deal and that's not easy, but you also see the strength of people coming together."

In his own community, the issues are different but no less significant, and Masters works with several Jewish organizations, particularly the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish United Fund-Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, on an ongoing basis on departmental matters.

The department has partnered with the ADL to train thousands of CPD officers on such issues as hate crimes, extremism and cyber-bullying. Lonnie Nasatir, director of the ADL's Chicago office, says Masters has been "a wonderful advocate for the ADL and for facilitating key programs for the Chicago Police Department."

In addition to its in-person training, the ADL has created an online hate crime training curriculum, the first such program in the country and one in which Masters was "hugely instrumental."

"We do (in-person) training for hundreds of police, but there are thousands," Nasatir says. "A beat officer might not be able to make the training, but they've got it right there on their laptop or BlackBerry," Part of the curriculum instructs officers on the key ingredients to focus on so a crime can be prosecuted as a hate crime. Masters, Nasatir says, "was instrumental in getting the curriculum through the appropriate channels and getting it up and running."

He has also spoken at ADL events on police department matters. "He's just great," Nasatir says. "He's the kind of guy, if there is a problem or an issue, we know he is there for us. He is a wonderful advocate for the Jewish community and has made it very easy to connect the dots at the Chicago Police Department. He wants to serve and protect and he takes his job very seriously."

Masters has also worked closely with the Jewish Federation on a variety of projects, including a mission to Israel last year for a number of CPD command staff. There the officers focused on counter-terrorism preparation and strategies and shared tactics with Israeli officers. "We are always searching for best practices, and the Israelis have certainly been forced to develop best practices," Masters says. "They are very open to sharing things with us, and that's a real plus."

Jay Tcath, director of the Federation's Jewish Community Relations Council, has worked with Masters on a number of issues. "He's a Renaissance guy," he says. "He's nice, handsome, modest. I wish there was something I could find to say bad about him, but try as I might, I can't," he jokes, noting that he and Masters have become close both personally and professionally.

"Security matters, whether it's our facilities throughout the city or our events, have always been a major concern, and cooperation with the Chicago Police has always been an essential part of our approach," Tcath says. "They've always been very cooperative."

Since attacks on Jewish community institutions from Seattle to Mumbai, India, "the Chicago police have been more responsive and accommodating than ever before," he says. "I attribute that not specifically to Michael Masters, although it doesn't hurt, but to the superintendent and the assessment of law enforcement at every level that Jewish institutions are more at risk, especially those that have an Israel connection."

Tcath calls Masters "the consummate professional. We're blessed to have conscientious, caring members of our community committed to public service, and Michael Masters I would hold up as exhibit A."

As for Masters himself, he says he relishes the job in all its sometimes troublesome complexity. "It's really a fascinating position because you have the opportunity to undertake so many different things just in a day, let alone working across weeks or months," he says. "You try to remain focused both in the short terms, on what's going on in a day, but also on the strategic long term of the department."

Weis, he says, "is quick to point out that, second to the mayor, he has the best job in the city of Chicago.

"If that's true, I just might have the third."