With the recent retirement of Chief of Police Derek Myers, the University of Memphis Police Service will see a change in leadership within the coming weeks. The decisions made by the new Chief of Police will directly affect students and their safety on campus. 

While there have been measures put in place such as safety phones and the UofM Alert service, some students feel this is not enough. 

Tiffany Taylor, a University of Memphis student and Memphis native, said she wanted more consistent placement of safety phones. 

“They’re pretty far between,” she said. “Pretty limited.” 

In addition to concerns about the access to safety phones, Taylor says she would like to see more police presence at night. 

“After dark I’ve never really seen a police presence here on campus,” she said. 

Recent graduate and University of Memphis library employee Jannele Walker shares this concern, stating she and other library employees want more lights and active patrolling for students and faculty who leave campus late.  

“We definitely need more serious security guards at night,” Walker said. 

However, after dark isn’t the only time students are vulnerable. A specific example of a situation in which police services were needed was cited by Zach Stewart, an employee at the Jones Hall food court. In November of 2022, Stewart was on campus during an active shooting in which one person was killed. The shooting occurred at 1015 Getwell Road near the University of Memphis Park Ave campus. 

“When you called the emergency number here on campus, nobody answered,” he said. “We had people in class that were unaware of the whole situation.” 

The new Chief of Police will likely be chosen in the next few weeks, the University said in an email announcing Myers's retirement. Colonel Preston Morton of the Lambuth Campus Police Service is the interim Chief of Police. No candidates for the position have been released to the public.  

Announcements and updates to safety information can be found on the University of Memphis website under “Police Services”. 

Students are concerned about a lack of police presence, unresponsive emergency services and more. The new Chief of Police will deal with these and myriad other issues throughout their career. 

Stewart said he hopes in the future response times and patrolling policies will be better to maintain a safe and secure campus environment.  

“When you have people that are unaware of a situation,” Stewart said, “it will always put people at risk.”