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DPS candidate emphasized need for more communication
The first finalist for director of DPS also proclaimed interest in officers being able to carry firearms
by Steven R. Neuman | News Editor
The first of three finalists looking to fill the vacant slot at the top of the Department of Public Safety was on campus Tuesday, meeting members of the University community.
Douglas L. Tripp, the current DPS director at Milwaukee Area Technical College, emphasized the need for the University of Oregon's department to improve communication and relationships with the students, faculty and staff while developing a master plan to achieve long-term objectives.
"This department appears to have a leadership vacuum," he said.
Positively, he said the officers he had met seemed eager to make changes and move in new directions.
The University has been without a permanent director for its Department of Public Safety for more than four years. Former Interim Director Tom Hicks, who had been employed with the University since 1983, resigned from his three-year stint in the temporary position at the end of December 2006. Richard Turkiewicz, a former Director of Public Safety and Police at the University of Central Florida, has held the interim position since March 2007.
Tripp also emphasized the importance of having student involvement in the department and the need to create a "sworn" police force on campus that is capable of carrying firearms. That prospect drew questions of concern and resistance from one of the two students who attended the public meeting.
"Students don't trust DPS to hire personnel who are qualified to hold firearms, right now," Tripp said. "They're very real concerns."
Tripp holds a master's degree in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, but said he held a strong attachment to the University of Oregon because of the school's storied track program. Although Lane Community College offered him the top position for public safety two years ago, Tripp somewhat sheepishly said he had held out for the University because of his own past as a distance runner.
"If I don't make it (this time), I'm coming right back at you," he said.
Douglas L. Tripp, the current DPS director at Milwaukee Area Technical College, emphasized the need for the University of Oregon's department to improve communication and relationships with the students, faculty and staff while developing a master plan to achieve long-term objectives.
"This department appears to have a leadership vacuum," he said.
Positively, he said the officers he had met seemed eager to make changes and move in new directions.
The University has been without a permanent director for its Department of Public Safety for more than four years. Former Interim Director Tom Hicks, who had been employed with the University since 1983, resigned from his three-year stint in the temporary position at the end of December 2006. Richard Turkiewicz, a former Director of Public Safety and Police at the University of Central Florida, has held the interim position since March 2007.
Tripp also emphasized the importance of having student involvement in the department and the need to create a "sworn" police force on campus that is capable of carrying firearms. That prospect drew questions of concern and resistance from one of the two students who attended the public meeting.
"Students don't trust DPS to hire personnel who are qualified to hold firearms, right now," Tripp said. "They're very real concerns."
Tripp holds a master's degree in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, but said he held a strong attachment to the University of Oregon because of the school's storied track program. Although Lane Community College offered him the top position for public safety two years ago, Tripp somewhat sheepishly said he had held out for the University because of his own past as a distance runner.
"If I don't make it (this time), I'm coming right back at you," he said.
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Kermit is Green
posted 7/25/07 @ 2:59 AM PST
This guy sees the future. Most of the officers at DPS have formal police training as reserves or through the full state police academy. Giving them guns to protect the campus is not much of a leap. (Continued…)
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