Hall named head of Syracuse University Public Safety

Hall named head of Syracuse University Public Safety
December 19, 2001
Kevin Morrow
kdmorrow@syr.edu

Marlene Hall, deputy chief of the LaVergne, Tenn., Police Department and former head of the Crime Prevention Division of Vanderbilt University and Medical Center, has been named director of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) at Syracuse University.

Hall was selected following a nationwide search process that began last May. She is expected to assume her new position in mid-January.

“The pool of candidates was excellent, but Marlene stood out with her depth of experience, student rapport and management style,” says SU Senior Vice President for Human Services and Government Relations Eleanor Ware in announcing Hall’s hiring. “She will be a terrific asset to the department and the University.”

Ware also announced the appointment of William Ferguson as DPS deputy director and Drew Buske as captain of patrol and investigations. Ferguson and Buske served as acting director and acting deputy director, respectively, since January 2001.

“I am very grateful to Bill and Drew for their professionalism and fine efforts over the past year,” says Ware. “Together with Marlene in our new leadership team, they will ensure the Department of Public Safety continues its tradition of excellence.”

As deputy chief of the LaVergne Police Department (LPD), Hall has been responsible for 50 of the department’s 60 officers and managed an annual budget of $3 million. She has overseen the department’s patrol and community policing functions, shared responsibility for criminal investigations, and been the lead investigator on domestic violence issues.

Since joining the LPD in 1998, Hall has revamped the department’s hiring and recruiting processes; co-developed a new policy manual; installed new quality control and employee assistance program policies; and established or revitalized several community-oriented programs, including a Neighborhood Watch, Citizen’s Police Academy and ethnic community meetings.

Previously, Hall worked at Vanderbilt for more than 19 years, including eight as head of the Crime Prevention Division, in which she oversaw crime prevention programming and technology, and proactive services for an urban campus/medical complex population of nearly 21,000 students, faculty and staff.

She holds a psychology degree from Vanderbilt and completed numerous law enforcement training programs, including the FBI Tennessee Law Enforcement Executive Development School, the University of Louisville’s National Crime Prevention Institute, and the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy’s Criminal Investigation School.

At SU, Hall will lead a 61-person department comprising patrol and parking patrol officers, investigators, and administrative and support staff.

SU’s Department of Public Safety is committed to promoting the safety and security of the University and its diverse community. The department, operating 24 hours a day year-round, is organized into several units: a patrol section that provides proactive vehicular, bicycle and foot patrols; a crime prevention section that stresses crime awareness through the presentation of educational programming and crime prevention surveys; and parking patrol officers who conduct hourly patrols of parking lots and garages.

In addition, in 1998 the department assumed primary responsibility for the Residential Security Program, which provides comprehensive safety and security programs for SU’s residence halls.

For more on the Department of Public Safety, visit http://sumweb.syr.edu/ pubsafe/.