When Vice President and Chief of Police Marlon Lynch joined his alma mater in February 2021, Michigan State University expanded the role of police chief in recognition of the broadening nature of proactive safety planning needs across the university beyond traditional law enforcement efforts.

To strengthen and bolster these efforts going forward, Interim President Woodruff has changed the structure of Police and Public Safety’s leadership to enable the accelerated expansion of university safety efforts across the East Lansing campus and all MSU campuses throughout Michigan.

Chris Rozman is the new chief of police. And Vice President Lynch is now vice president and chief safety officer for MSU. On this episode of MSU Today, Lynch and Rozman talk about the transition and their new roles.

Conversation highlights:

(1:12) – “My role as vice president and chief safety officer will be broader, as opposed to also having primary responsibility for the university police department. The university and its needs evolve.”

(3:40) – “I’m honored and humbled to be offered the appointment to chief at my alma mater and the place where I’ve spent my entire career.”

(5:47) – “We do a really good job of community outreach, engagement, and policing as it is, and I want to make sure we weave that through all our employees in every aspect of our department. Our police officers do a great job daily, and I want to emphasize the point that every interaction we have with every member of our community is an opportunity to engage and build trust.”

(9:14) – “I’m not an emotional person, but I have found myself feeling very emotional since then. It’s something to deal with both personally and professionally. Being cognizant of that is necessary for us to move forward.”

(11:06) – “What I think really stands out is that our department and most of our employees who have been here a long time are truly connected to this community. We are impacted and healing just like our community.”

(12:40) – “As we were committed to communicating updates and sharing information with our community, we weren’t talking to the media or the cameras. We were speaking to our community.”

(13:38) – “We are part of the community. We are Spartans protecting Spartans. That’s how we’re going to move forward. This is our campus. What surprised me was the number of students who told us they still feel safe on campus. We are absolutely committed to ensuring the safety of this campus now and in the future. And we know we need to work with the community to do that and we stand ready.”

(15:25) – “The chiefs for the cities of East Lansing, Lansing, and Meridian Township, and the sheriff for Ingham County are all Spartans. There’s a connectivity in the law enforcement and public safety community, including fire and EMS.”

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