Keith Humphrey, former Little Rock police chief, has been hired by the University of Memphis to fill the role of police chief as of February 12. He retired in 2022 and has been looking for a university policing position.  

“I’ve always had an interest, in my later years in law enforcement, in being a campus police chief,” Humphrey said. 

Humphrey has 36 years of law enforcement experience in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. He plans to bring a proactive approach to UofM Police Services through training and community engagement.  

“When I first got into law enforcement it was just reactive, and so I got to learn how to be proactive,” he said. “Engaging in the community, being a problem solver.” 

Part of this plan is bringing in RITE Training, or Racial Intelligence Training and Engagement. The training is focused on emotional intelligence, which Humphrey says is vital in a campus community.  

“We’re actively seeking community-oriented officers for our department because we realize not everyone can be a campus police officer,” Humphrey said.  

According to the RITE Academy website, since their creation in 2015 they have, “taught over 1200 public service agencies, trained over 975 RITE Trainers, and provided over 550,000 training tools to help our public servants.”  

RITE Academy is an independently owned corporation, run and founded by Linda Webb and Randy Friedman. There are currently five officers certified to teach the training cirriculum, however the website states there are “more team trainers coming soon”. 

In addition to RITE Training, Humphrey has four officer volunteers working on a mission and vision statement for the University of Memphis Police Services. Among the four volunteers is Lt. Marco Anderson, who has worked at the university since 2003. 

“You know, we’re in a collaboration here, so we’re willing and able and ready to go and make our community better and stronger,” Anderson said.  

Community policing and outreach will be an important part of the statement, according to Anderson. Working with Anderson are officers Laron Young, Christopher Taylor, and Randy Phillips. While Humphrey will have input on the final statement, he is not creating it. 

“They’re developing the mission and vision statement,” Humphrey said. “I didn’t want to do that because they’re the ones that are out there daily.” 

Once approved, the statement will be available to view on the Police Services website. Humphrey said he is looking forward to coming out of retirement and taking on the unique environment a college campus presents. 

“I wasn’t ready to sit down, because I’ve been doing some consulting and things like that, but I was ready to get back in,” he said. “I’m having a ball.”