Servis appointed as interim chief after Fuller resigns
By JORDAN GREEN, Editor-in-Chief
Northwestern has a new campus police chief for the second time this semester – and the fifth time since 2019.
Northwestern police officer Cole Servis was named the university’s interim police chief on Wednesday, following the quiet October resignation of Kyle Fuller, who was hired as chief during the summer.
Servis is the only full-time employee in the Alva campus police department, which hasn’t been fully staffed with a chief and two full-time officers since 2019, said Dean of Student Affairs Calleb Mosburg, who oversees the department.
Fuller’s last day on the job was Oct. 30. Mosburg said Fuller resigned because he had an opportunity to return to his previous job as a deputy with the Woods County Sheriff’s Office.
“He said he loved his time up here, loves campus and working with students, but he felt like it was a better fit for him to be working back with the sheriff’s office,” Mosburg said.
Attempts to reach Fuller for comment were unsuccessful.
Fuller was the fourth person to be Northwestern’s top cop in the last two years. Former chief Joel Johnson left the university in the spring of 2019, and then-officer Ethan Kennedy was named police chief. He left the chief’s job in 2020 and was replaced by Kyle Hair, who left before the current school year began. Fuller replaced Hair.
The turnover in the department comes amid increased pressure on law enforcement agencies across the nation, leaving government entities struggling to hire new officers, according to a 2019 report from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
“[T]he difficulty in recruiting law enforcement officers and employees is not due to one particular cause,” researchers wrote in the report. “Rather, multiple social, political, and economic forces are all simultaneously at play in shaping the current state of recruitment and retention.”
As of Tuesday, Northwestern listed job openings for the chief, a full-time police officer and a part-time police officer on its website.
PAY LEVEL COULD BE A ‘DETERRENT’
Mosburg said the university has had “a few” applicants for the chief’s position since it was posted, although the job salary may not be enough for some.
The university’s police chief had a salary of $45,000, according to the university’s 2019-2020 budget. The university does not list the chief’s salary in the job listing on its website.
“We’ve had a couple applications that have come from way outside of our area here,” Mosburg said. “They’ve worked in larger cities with … much higher paying salaries for police officers. So, I know that drop for some of them can be quite a bit. It’s usually a deterrent when they find that salary isn’t quite where their perception of it is.”
The salary for the chief is nearly the same as the starting salary for a certified police officer in nearby Enid: $44,473.23, according to city data.
Mosburg said the chief’s salary is similar to that of law enforcement officers in the area.
“We made some adjustments a few years ago to increase the pay for that chief’s position,” Mosburg said. “I feel like it’s very competitive.”
While Northwestern doesn’t pay as much as other law enforcement agencies, it offers benefits they can’t: free tuition for officers and their families, and a more laid-back work environment, Mosburg said.
“You don’t have to go work traffic or sit on the side of the highway and drive around town and pull people over,” Mosburg said. “[It is] really a community policing-type approach, where it’s just getting to know the people on campus and building that relationship and trust factor.”
But sometimes, not even a lower-stress environment can make up for higher pay.
“I’ve had applicants that are working as officers in the Dallas metro area that are making $125,000 per year,” Mosburg said. “If you’re a young professional, and they’re in need of hiring people … why would you not go do that?”
Mosburg attributes the turnover in the chief’s job to factors beyond the university’s control. Some left to pursue other career opportunities, and others left because of family-related reasons, he said.
“It’s not that the job is a bad gig,” Mosburg said. “It just has happened that way, and it’s been unfortunate, but nothing that they could ever say that the university was a bad place to work or they didn’t get along with me.”
CAMPUS POLICE DEPARTMENT AMONG STATE’S SMALLEST
Northwestern’s campus police department is among the smallest campus police agencies in the state even when fully staffed. Aside from Servis, the Alva campus department is staffed by about five campus security officers, who are student workers, as well as three part-time police officers, Mosburg said.
Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford has seven full-time officers, two student-cadet officers and 11 reserve officers, according to the university’s website.
Northeastern State University in Tahlequah has a police chief, two sergeants and three officers for its police department, according to its website.
Mosburg said he believes the university will find the right applicant.
“With the change in the environment, so to speak, and just policing in general, I think we’ll eventually land somebody who will be here for a very long period of time,” Mosburg said.
“In the meantime, we’re kind of dealing with the environment we’re in.”
