'U' adopts committee's recommendations for DPS

The arrest of John Matlock is continuing to have a powerful impact on the University's Department of Public Safety and how it operates.

The University announced June 20 that complaints against DPS officers will be examined by an oversight committee, according to a joint memorandum signed by outgoing President James Duderstadt and Chief Financial Officer Farris Womack.

Although state law mandates that such a policy be enacted, the University's Public Safety Oversight Committee had received only one grievance in its four-year existence before the Matlock arrest.

Instead, the committee cited in a June 17 report, "the Committee was not informed of the existence or the handling or the disposition of complaints against police officers made directly to the Department."

The committee's June 17 report made recommendations on how to improve the group's effectiveness in monitoring grievances against DPS officers. The University responded three days later with the following policy changes:

n The committee was granted with a part-time office staff, a telephone, storage space and a budget. The Oversight Committee had none of these facilities since its formation in 1992.

n DPS was notified they must inform the committee of every complaint filed against a DPS officer.

n The committee's request for a criminal law attorney to be hired by the General Counsel's Office, to better handle DPS complaints, is still under review by the University.

The University will also reestablish the Task Force on Campus Safety and Security, the group that helped found DPS.

School of Music Dean Paul C. Boylan will once again head the task force in charge of reviewing the progress.

The activity level of the committee took a dramatic upswing earlier this year.

John Matlock, director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, claimed he was wrongly arrested Feb. 17 by two white DPS officers. Matlock, who is black, filed a complaint to the committee against the two officers.

The Oversight committee's ensuing investigation has been postponed until after Matlock's scheduled trial in July. The OAMI director faces misdemeanor charges of assault and interfering with a police officer.

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