PROVO -- Outgoing Brigham Young University Police Chief Robert Kelshaw cited health concerns as "the main decider" in his decision to step aside after 38 years with the university's police department -- 26 of them as chief.
Kelshaw, 59, suffers from chronic fatigue and Meniere's syndrome, a disease that affects the inner ear and can affect balance and hearing.Kelshaw was replaced by Larry Stott, who took the reins Monday.
"We've been doing a handoff," Stott said, describing the transition taking place in the police department. Stott, 51, recently retired as assistant chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
"For a long time I've wanted to be a chief," he said. "This is the best police chief job in the state and probably the country."
Kelshaw said the biggest challenge facing Stott is dealing with troublesome visitors on campus.
That's been one of the chief problems in policing the LDS Church--owned campus, Kelshaw said. But it's not unusual. Up to 80 percent of police action on college campuses around the nation involves non-students, he said, with theft the most common campus crime.
Kelshaw set up a student security system three years ago that has reduced problems caused by non-students. About 100 students were hired and trained to work as security officers. The uniformed -- but unarmed -- students are charged with being additional eyes and ears for the police force's 25 certified officers. The initial cost to start the program was about $100,000, Kelshaw said. The police force has added only four officers since Kelshaw joined the force part-time as a freshman student back in 1961.
The student security officers' duties encompass late night work and surveillance. That includes the "safe walk" program that provides students -- usually coeds who feel threatened or uncomfortable -- with an escort to help them to a safe environment. Student security officers are also allowed to stop and interview people wandering the campus late at night. However, a certified officer also has to be there, Kelshaw said.
"It's amazing how many people they've stopped (that) had lengthy records," he said.
Using students to bolster the police force has become a curiosity among other college campus police agencies, Kelshaw said. He calls it his biggest success, made necessary because of the police department's limited manpower. Getting a full-time police officer position approved is "next to impossible," he said. "We have always used as many students as we can."
Reserve officers from other police agencies around Utah County also fill in. Many of them once worked for the department before moving on to another police force, he said.
Stott said his plan is "to stay the course for at least six months."
Stott said he will then meet with the rest of the department leaders to set new goals.
"I'm not going to make decisions in a vacuum," Stott said.
Kelshaw has served BYU as a police officer for 38 years, working his way up through the ranks until he was named chief in 1974. He has served in the top post longer than any other police chief in Utah, Stott said.
While the police force hasn't grown much during his third-of-a-century tenure with the department, the police budget has doubled. Kelshaw won't say what the budget is, but he admitted it averages about $1 million less than comparable campuses. Unlike a city police agency, the BYU force has responsibility for what goes on inside the buildings as well as outside, Stott said. "This is a different animal completely."
Kelshaw said his greatest moments involved watching students who'd been in trouble with police correct their behavior and eventually graduate. His most tragic moment was reading the will of a suicide victim to the parents shortly after the incident. The Maryland freshman's death in 1988 is one of only two shootings in BYU history. At the mother's request, he allowed her to read the message for herself.
"I let her sit at my desk and read it. Those stains on the matting on my desk are from the salt in her tears."
The biggest change in BYU police work involves the major reduction of drug and alcohol use that was prevalent in the 1960s, Kelshaw said. Much of the abuse was by non-students, he said. However, when the LDS Church began requiring potential students to get approval from their ecclesiastical leaders before they could enroll, police work became much easier.
"That made a very, very positive impact," Kelshaw said.
As for the new chief?
"A lot of proactive things are done here," Stott said. "I like the quality of life and intend to participate in the activities of the university."