April 23, 2013 - 11:01pm
Police Oversight Committee changes name
BY TAYLOR WIZNER
The Oversight Committee for the University Police Department recently changed its name from the Department of Public Safety Oversight Committee in order to reflect the restructuring of the Division of Public Safety and Security that occurred last October.
Law prof. Richard Friedman, a faculty member of the Oversight Committee, wrote in an e-mail that the group changed the name and procedures with the approval of University President Mary Sue Coleman in order to keep up with the changes in division protocols.
The committees now subscribe to the University of Michigan Police Department, which was previously called the Department of Public Safety.
Additionally, the committee has made changes in the way procedures will work in the committee. Friedman wrote that previously the committee had to file reports with Chief Financial Officer Timothy Slottow, who had supervisory authority over DPS.
Now, because the Executive Director of the Division of Public Safety and Security is currently University Police Chief Joseph Piersante — who supervises the Police Department — Friedman wrote that it was appropriate for the committee to file its reports with him instead of with the CFO.
Friedman added that the committee’s procedures, which previously dictated that amendments must be approved by the CFO — or if he failed to approve them, by the President — now will be approved by the Executive Director in place of the CFO.
“That is all these amendments do,” Friedman wrote. “We do not assert jurisdiction over the entire Division of Public Safety and Security, but only over the (University) Police Department.”
