You don't need to be a conspiracy theorist to think that something is amok at the Duke University Police Department. Officer attrition has been as high as 50 percent since Aaron Graves, vice president for campus safety and security, arrived two years ago and there remain questions outstanding regarding the department's conduct during the lacrosse incident a few years back.
Amidst the turmoil, Executive Vice President Tallman Trask is leading a search for a new chief. Robert Dean, director of the department for two separate stints, is retiring again-and this time it's going to stick. "We're replacing an institution in Dean, and it's never easy to replace an institution," Trask says.
A top priority is finding a candidate with both real-world experience and the right attitude for campus security. But as some officers say Graves proved, finding the right resume does not necessarily equal success. Trask has hired a New York-based search firm to make sure the right person is in place by the start of classes. Let's just hope there are still officers around in August to welcome the new chief.
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