Citing his understanding of a university campus and excellent performance during the Olympics, U officials made Ben Lemmon chief of the U Police Department Thursday.
A 29-year UUPD veteran, Lemmon has acted as interim chief since Chief Robert Wilson left last June.
Lemmon describes becoming chief as “an extremely humbling experience.”
Given the context of the Olympics and the security demands involved, Lemmon said he has focused more on the Games than on his actually being chief in the last 10 months.
“We had an opportunity to see how much we could handle [during the Olympics], but I truly believe that we can handle a great deal,” Lemmon said.
Lemmon listed two benefits to come from the amount of preparation that went into Olympic security. One, all the preparation in the event of a terrorist strike during the Olympics leaves the campus and police ready to handle any kind of catastrophic event, natural or otherwise. Two, during the Olympic period the UUPD created relationships with more on-campus entities than it normal comes into contact with.
Lemmon hopes the relationships will lead to more communication and greater crime prevention.
“We want to be a little more aggressive in getting to know students, staff and faculty better so we know each other by first name, so they feel comfortable in calling us if they want information,” Lemmon said.
Theft is the largest crime the UUPD deals with, including bike theft and vehicle burglary. As weather improves in the spring, more people ride bicycles and more get stolen. Starting Friday, UUPD plain clothes officers began monitoring the campus for bike thieves.
In November, the UUPD released its annual crime report, which reported 552 thefts on or near U property in 2000, down from 735 in 1999 and 814 in 1998.
Although reported theft has gone down, Lemmon’s plan to continue that trend is increasing community involvement.
In dealing with students, Lemmon doesn’t want U police officers to come off as intimidating or threatening. He wants to be seen as more of a friend than a foe.
“We take great pride in our opportunity to spend some extra time with students,” he said. “I know the community quite well, and I think the philosophy of the university is the same as ours.”
Associate Vice President for Facilities Randy Turpin recommended Lemmon be made permanent chief based on “his outstanding performance as interim chief” particularly during the Olympic period.
Lemmon’s greatest asset, according to Turpin, is the “fact that he understands the special requirements for a police chief on a university campus.”