The change, which was effective May 1, also included the appointment of former EPCS Director Erick Gaither to the new position of executive director of the Department of Community Services. Gaither will have three areas of responsibility: transportation and alternative transportation, parking, and EPD. Reporting to Gaither in these three areas will be: Cheryle Crumley, who has served as assistant director of community services for alternative transportation programs in EPCS for two years; an assistant director of community services for parking, who will be named later; and Craig Watson, who became EPD chief on June 1. Watson succeeds longtime EPD Chief Ed Medlin, who left Emory June 2 to become director of security for the B'hai community in Israel.
Williams said Medlin's departure presented him with the opportunity to examine the organizational structure of EPD and EPCS. Williams said he believes the services provided by the two departments can best be provided through one departmental structure. "That's the way it's done at most other colleges and universities," Williams said.
"It makes sense to have these two departments under one organizational umbrella," Gaither said. "It will allow us to coordinate some of the services in a way that will make the process more convenient for faculty, staff and students requesting those services."
Gaither said he will be looking at the organizational structures of all three branches of Community Services over the next few months to determine the best way to integrate delivery of the department's services.
Watson described the new organizational structure as a move that "will help the Emory community in getting the things done that they need to get done." Under the current structure, Watson said, a faculty or staff member organizing a campus event that requires special parking provisions, shuttle services and building security might have to make two or three separate calls to EPCS and EPD staff. Watson envisions a procedure that would require only one telephone call to arrange all of those services. "That's why this change is not really an elimination of a duplication of services, but a merging of related services into one place," Watson said.
A 17-year EPD veteran and frequent instructor at Georgia State University, Watson plans to have EPD become more involved in helping faculty, staff and students stop campus crime before it happens. "While we are a police department," Watson said, "I think of our department as being more. We want to go beyond providing the reactive police services of a traditional municipal police department and get involved in the service and prevention end."
Since joining EPD as an officer in 1978, Watson has gained the experience necessary to carry out a major community education initiative. He holds a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Valdosta State University (formerly Valdosta State College) and a master's degree in criminal justice management from Georgia State University. Watson has continually moved up through the EPD ranks during his time at Emory, holding the positions of officer, sergeant, investigator, lieutenant and deputy director. Since 1993, he has taught senior level undergraduate courses in Georgia State's criminal justice program. He also has served as an instructor in the Division of Human Resources' Front-line Leader-ship Program, designed for senior- and mid-level managers at Emory. He is a member of the International Association of Credit Card Investigators, the Georgia Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instruc-tors and other professional law enforcement associations.
"This is the opportunity of a lifetime," Watson said of his appointment. "One of the first things I liked about Emory 17 years ago was the fact that everybody treated everybody else like family. That's still true today. I can't think of any other place I would rather work."
--Dan Treadaway