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Divisions


Chief

The Office of the Chief is commanded by Chief Sean Patterson. The Office of the Chief houses the Critical Incident Response Team, Internal Affairs Unit, and Public Information Officer.

 

Administration

The Administrative Division is commanded by Deputy Chief Emily Simerly. The Administrative Division consists of Accreditation Unit, Central Alarm monitoring, Community Relations Unit, Communications, Investigations Unit, Recruitment, Records, Strategic Initiatives Unit, and Training and Technical Services. These sections contribute support and training to assist the department’s overall police function. Budget and Payroll also fall under this division.

Operations

The Operations Division is commanded by Deputy Chief Mike Richardson. The UTPD Operations Division is the largest departmental division. Operations includes Campus Protection Specialists, Capital Escorts, Community Service Officers, K9 Unit, Motor Unit, Patrol, and Special Events.

Patrol provides the highest level of security and public safety assistance twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. Whether our officers patrol campus or the surrounding area in vehicles, bicycles, or on foot, they perform a wide variety of services. These services include, but are not limited to, responding to calls for service, writing reports, conducting preliminary investigations, checking the security of university property, and providing traffic enforcement and crowd control during special events. In fact, during every UT home football game, the population size of our jurisdiction easily exceeds 100,000 people.

The Operations Division consists of sixty officers, including five lieutenants and six sergeants. All officers are certified in Tennessee as fully sworn commissioned law enforcement officers. UTPD officers enforce university rules, regulations, and state and local laws. University officers work closely with other local, state, and federal agencies.