Georgetown responds on Jeffrey Van Slyke’s terrifying record
Posted by: Will Sommer in News, Vox Populi, tags: DPS, Georgetown, Jeffrey Van SlykeJeffrey Van Slyke, the new head of DPS, has a worrisome past. As the head of the University of Texas’s police force, his department was accused of racial profiling, a charge he belittled. He was named in a civil suit (settled out of court) for negligence. A UTPD officer attended the meeting of a pro-choice group, and Van Slyke armed his policemen with semi-automatics and shotguns, despite the university’s low crime rate. These and other problems in his record were discussed earlier this afternoon, here and here.
University spokesperson Julie Green Bataille responded to me in an email, and she’s not too concerned
In terms of his background please know that Jeff has handled a range of complex and challenging issues throughout his career. His police and emergency management experience and understanding of higher education made him the most qualified person to lead Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety at this time. He’s already making a positive enhancements to our ongoing efforts to address campus safety and security.
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Allegations about incidents that may or may not have occurred at other institutions are best be addressed by those entities directly.
It seems like Georgetown is either OK with the things Van Slyke and his subordinates did ( infiltrating a pro-choice group!) or they didn’t know and now that they do, they’re OK with it. How depressing.
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You people need to get a life.. I would rather have damn guns on the campus than damn pepper spray. We live in a currupt world now people.
Smoke and Mirrors.
All I see of these past allegations are diversions, misdirects and newspeak.
I’m not defending Van Slyke – don’t know him- but if the only complaints are about some employees, and a dropped suit, along with, oh-no, investigative work, these complaints are pathetic. Get off your witch hunt. Go after more useful things like waste, maintenance and vandalism (i.e. not punshing vandals).
I’m all up for covering waste, maintenance, and vandalism–just drop me a line about what you’re talking about.
Did you read the cover story last week in the Voice? It shows that Dr. Van Slyke’s past includes more than just bad behavior by his employees (which he didn’t seem concerned with looking into in one case) and a suit settled out of court. Check it out!