When Aaron Graves assumed his position as associate vice president for campus safety and security Monday, the North Carolina native dove into the task of enhancing Duke's security strategy.
In the newly created position, Graves will oversee security needs of all three of the University's campuses and the medical center. His post is one of three new associate vice president positions in the division of campus services.
Graves, the former executive director and chief of public safety at the University of Southern California said his new job is appealing for both professional and personal reasons. "It was a great opportunity in my profession coming to an institution like Duke University in this capacity... and this is an opportunity to come back home to be with family-two good reasons to be a Blue Devil right now," Graves said.
A search committee headed by Kemel Dawkins, vice president for campus services, chose Graves from more than 50 candidates in a nationwide search. The committee was formed after former Duke University Police Chief Clarence Birkhead stepped down from his post June 30.
"He's been doing this for a long time, and he understands the sort of broader dimensions of campus security," Executive Vice President Tallman Trask said of Graves. "I think he's going to be quite good."
Graves stressed that in his first weeks on campus he will meet with and seek input from various community members before implementing any security changes. "It's easy to preconceive what may need to be done," he said. "But I think you have to do the full assessment to really listen to all the stakeholders involved and find out what are the most important things and develop a strategy and work with the community to cause that strategy to become reality."
Creating the new associate vice president position and working to integrate safety measures reflects the administration's renewed focus on working to enhance security on campus, Graves said.
"This is a message to the community that Duke University is committed to integrating and bringing to bear the resources necessary that those that attend here, work here and live here feel comfortable in their environment," he added.
Graves said he will act as a buffer between the senior administration and the police department and address Duke's security needs with a holistic approach.
"Duke Police Department is one component and a very vital component," he said. "However, there are other entities that we need to bring to bear, and it's my responsibility to make sure we're getting the fullest out of all those other entities through my direction and leadership, hopefully."
Graves said he will also help integrate more technology into Duke's security plan. Possible new tools include different access systems and video surveillance systems. He stressed that this technology would be used to augment and supplement the present goals of DUPD.
The expansion of security forces is also a possibility, as Duke's campus is growing with the new Bell Tower dormitory on East Campus and the planned renovation of Central Campus, Graves said. "DUPD will be poised to make adjustments to meet the needs of the community," he added.
Graves named improving town-gown relations as another one of his priorities, though he admitted he does not know how he will approach the issue yet.
"We in the Duke Police Department are sometimes on the front line out there dealing with issues with our students and our community, and I think that we want to be a resource and we want to be a facilitator in helping develop much stronger, positive working relationships with the community," he said.
Robert Dean, interim DUPD chief, will remain in his position until at least the end of the academic year to facilitate Graves' transition, Trask said. The old position of police chief will still exist in the restructured campus security system.
In early December, Graves turned down an offer to be chief of police at the University of Texas at Austin.
"We were unable to get him because he decided to pursue a bigger, higher-paying position than what we could offer him," Michael Lauderdale, chair of the police chief search committee at UT, told The Daily Texan Dec. 6.
Graves had been chief of police at USC since Feb. 2003. Prior to that, he had been director and chief of police at Southern Methodist University in Dallas since 1993. He retired from 20 years of service in the U.S. Air Force in 1992 after serving in Germany and Thailand.
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