MSU police Chief Jim Dunlap has had two months to get used to being head of MSU’s police department, a move he was restless to begin.
Dunlap was sworn in June 24 to officially take over for the retiring Bruce Benson, who spent nine years as Department of Police and Public Safety’s top authority.
Benson started his new job as a full-time professor in the School of Criminal Justice on Aug. 1. He said he is glad to give up the stresses that come with blue uniforms.
The changing of the guard is giving the department a chance for progress. Dunlap is upgrading the department’s community-policing program, which was started by Benson in 1987.
Campus will be split into quadrants, each of which will be assigned a team of about eight employees to patrol the area. The team will assist community policing officers already assigned to dorm complexes.
The program will help community relations, which fell after fierce student-reaction to the placement of an undercover officer in campus activist group United Students Against Sweatshops, now known as Students For Economic Justice.
But Benson said he believes the new chief is equipped to handle any situation that may come along. Dunlap served three years as MSU’s deputy chief. He will be MSU’s fourth police chief.
Officers have also been reassigned to work 12-hour shifts instead of eight-hour rounds. The longer shifts will keep more officers on the road during peak late-night hours and weekends, Dunlap said.
Barb Dunlap said she her husband’s new position was going to be a lifestyle change for them both, but she was ready for “the late night phone calls and that sort of thing.”
Jim Dunlap was given his new badge by MSU President M. Peter McPherson.
“It’s such a heavy pin, it has the nature of a sword,” McPherson said.
McPherson said a campus police chief’s job is among the most difficult duties in the world.
He said that MSU’s population of 43,000 students, “most at an age who, frankly, are going through some feelings about authority,” make being police chief a difficult role.
Despite the unpopularity that may accompany the role, Jim Dunlap said he’s glad to be the one to take it.
“There are very few days over the past years I’ve been here that I haven’t enjoyed coming to work,” he said.
“I don’t think many people can say that about their careers.”
