A new chief of police at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was sworn into office today. The new chief arrives just in time to plan for an annual public safety challenge, the notorious “ Blarney Blowout."
Protecting a campus with almost 30,000 students, 6,000 people on the faculty and staff, and thousands of daily visitors situated in a bustling college town takes cooperation and collaboration, according to Tyrone Parham, the new UMass Amherst police chief.
" Safety is, I think, a part of everyone's responsibility," he said.
Parham, who started on the job a month ago, commands a staff of 60 officers he described in an interview Friday as “highly trained, professional, and diligent.”
" Parents who are 200-300 miles away want to feel their son or daughter are safe here and we are going to do everything we can to assure that," said Parham
Parham said the campus police will continue to be highly visible as they patrol, interact with students, and provide security at sports and entertainment events.
" Getting everyone to buy into safety can help us as well," he said. " Getting students and faculty to feel comfortable to call us if they see something out of the ordinary."
Prior to the hiring of a new chief, the police department was reorganized within the UMass Amherst administration. The department is now under the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Campus Life and Parham is an assistant vice chancellor.
He said this structure will help coordinate resources to address what is perhaps the most challenging public safety problem, risky student behavior in the form of alcohol and drug abuse. Parham said the university police are prepared to confront the opioid crisis should it impact the campus.
" Obviously we have a role in the accountability on the law enforcement end, but we are going to spend most of our efforts in a preventative role doing programs and presentations, he said.
UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, last year, directed campus police to end the controversial practice of using confidential student informants after a student whom police had recruited to be an informant died of a heroin overdose.
Parham, 44, came to UMass after a 26-year career at Pennsylvania State University, where he worked his way up the ranks from student intern to chief.
He joked with reporters Friday that he knew March 5th was an important date. The first Saturday in March has become a day for pre-St. Patrick’s Day partying, known as the Blarney Blowout. It garnered national headlines in 2014, when police in riot gear fired pepper balls to bring large unruly crowds of thousands of college-age people under control and made 55 arrests.
Last year’s Blarney Blowout resulted in just a few arrests. UMass followed recommendations made by former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, who was hired to advise the university and town police departments on how to avoid a repeat of what happened in 2014.
Parham said he has already attended several meetings on planning for this year’s Blarney Blowout.
" There's a lot more work to be done, but generally speaking the plan is to do pretty much everything we did in in 2015," Parham said Friday.
Last year, more than 200 police officers from throughout the region were deployed to Amherst, there were restrictions on visitors and campus parking, and UMass sponsored a free concert.
A UMass spokesman Friday said details about a possible free concert this year have not been finalized.
