Executive Director of Public Safety Elizabeth Pauley, TWU’s first female police chief, announced her retirement from the university’s Department of Public Safety after 23 years of service.
Interim Executive Director of Public Safety Samuel Garrison will lead DPS after Pauley’s retirement on May 31.
Pauley first came to TWU in 1977 as a sergeant and worked off and on for DPS whenever her husband’s work in the Airforce brought her back to Texas. Pauley said TWU’s atmosphere always drew her back here.
Pauley said: “At first I was working for the University of Texas, but I was looking for more of a career challenge and so TWU appealed to me.
I just like the atmosphere, after my husband retired I spent a year at the Sheriff’s department so I could be closer to home. But I liked TWU, it was more of what I wanted in my career fieled, so I came back.”
Under Pauley’s leadership, TWU has been named one of the top 50 safest campuses in the nation due to little to no crimes committed under the Clery act. Pauley also lead TWU during the university’s transition to adhere to Texas’s new campus carry law allowing licensed individuals to carry concealed handheld guns on public university property. Pauley spent large amounts of time presenting the university’s plan on how to comply with the law and held discussion forums for concerned students and faculty and staff. Pauley also worked to designate where gun free zones on campus would be and educated the campus about restriction and guidelines that must be obeyed.
Pauley said: “Campus carry was a law that we had to comply with, but I think the whole community helped implement that policy. But we’ve got a good policy in place at this point. We had a lot of participation in our community and that helped.” Pauley has also spent her last three years working with a team of people from DPS to submit the department for accreditation by the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. This is the first time TWU has applied for this accreditation since the DPS’s inception and Pauley hopes the department will be awarded it in June.
This accreditation will distinguish TWU’s DPS as a top notch institution with internationally and nationally approved procedures and guidelines.
Pauley explained: “It’s quite an honor to be accredited and we’re right at that point.
We’ve had a team working very hard on this for the past three years.”
After 44 years in law enforcement, Pauley is turning in her badge and has enjoyed her time at TWU where she helped professionalize the department, seek accreditation and the implementation of campus carry at TWU. Pauley said: “I’m going to miss TWU. A big part of my life has been spent here and it holds a deep place in my heart.”
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