New changes have been made to Safety and Security, which will now be known as the Department of Public Safety. The Board of Trustees approved the changes, and things are moving along. The department will be adding sworn law enforcement officers as well. The department will also be overseeing Risk Management.

“The intent of these changes is to improve the overall service and professionalism altogether. In my opinion, the best way to do this was to add law enforcement officers,” Director of Department of Public Safety and Chief of Police, Chris Ballard said.

The name change was effective July 1 of 2013. The department will cover police, security, risk management, environmental health and safety and parking. The department is making the changes in stages, so no police officers have been hired yet. “We are trying to establish a shell before we add the police officers. We’ll be hiring them and a new assistant director. Hourly police officers will not be on campus until second semester,” Ballard said.

Deania Luthy will have a new role as the Security and Parking Coordinator. She will responsible for the security team and managing parking. The department hopes to be hiring for the hourly police positions in January.

The idea for the new police officers comes from the amount of training they have had. “The police officers will have more training and background experience than a security guard would,” Ballard said. The police officers will be heading up the security program. “This will bring security up as well because the security guards will be under the direction of the officers,” Ballard said.

All the services the department offered previously will still be available. Safe Rides and Safe Walks, lockout assistance and incident reporting and investigation will be available. “Incidents like an alcohol violation will still be handled internally through myself and Dean Prange’s office. We don’t want students to have a criminal record here because of an alcohol violation,” Ballard said.

The new mission statement of the Department of Public Safety is: “To support the overall university mission by assuring a safe and secure educational environment by providing professional law enforcement and security service to the campus community. Courteous. Confident. Professional.”