The Longwood University Police Department held a promotional ceremony on Friday, Feb. 13. The promotional ceremony was held to recognize four individuals who were promoted to different positions in the department. Two officers, Mike Collins and Adam Newcomb, were promoted to the rank of sergeants. Two sergeants, Ray Ostrander and John Johnson, were promoted to the rank of lieutenants. Carlton ‘Skip’ Spain was also recognized with a certificate at the ceremony for his volunteer work in the Parking Services office.
During the ceremony, Chief Beach introduced and spoke a few words about each man receiving a promotion. He stated that the ceremony was not really for the four men, but more for their families and friends. The family members in attendance were then able to adorn the new lieutenants and sergeants with their new rank insignia. “I’ve enjoyed my time here. Like the students here, I’ve grown in my own way. So I’m looking forward to what I’ve got coming,” stated Sergeant Collins.
Although the promotions were given to four men within the department, others outside of the department were considered for the positions as well. “All of them are senior officers that have really displayed the highest level of professionalism in our profession and that’s the key here, that we have strong leadership in our infrastructure to manage what we do in the area of public safety and law enforcement. All of these men come from within the department, but they competed against all of a total of somewhere around 80 people from all over the state for these jobs,” stated Beach.
Although four positions have been filled, the department is still looking to fill one more sergeant position. Once the position has been filled, the department will change the shift process to 12 hour shifts instead of eight hour shifts. “That allows us to increase our minimum staffing at any given time on the campus. Also, it allows for confident leadership supervision during the shifts. So there’s always a supervisor and always a sufficient number of officers on the staff working the street to be able to more effectively manage our issues and incidents here on-campus,” stated Beach.
Also in attendance at the ceremony were representatives from the police departments of Farmville and Hampden-Sydney College. Jeffrey Gee, the deputy chief of police at Hampden-Sydney College, stated the importance of the connection between Longwood and Hampden-Sydney. “At some point, we’re forced to work together anyway, and it’s usually not under good circumstances. The better we know each other and know each other’s operations, it makes it easier to convert from one campus to the other and it just makes good sense,” stated Deputy Chief Gee.
Debbie Wooding, the senior manager of the Office of Integrated Security Systems and the administrative assistant to the Chief of Police, said that the reorganization of the department began from a need to expand the services. “The campus is spreading out all over town basically. We want to have better response times to things and more education for the students. So we don’t just do the law enforcement part, we also do education and teaching things like alcohol awareness and the RAD program. So we want to expand on all of these education opportunities that we’re bringing to the student population,” she stated. Wooding also said that the department will change the shifts to three officers on duty at a time instead of the former two.
Beach stated in his speech that he is confident that the newly promoted sergeants and lieutenants are a valuable asset to the department. “Longwood is a special place. It has unique issues, but the key that I was looking for was strong leadership and ability to perform at that level. I’m very proud of them. I’m very, very proud of them,” stated Beach.
