Magazine taps NSU police chief as top director

Campus Safety Magazine has named Nicholls State University Police Chief Craig Jacuzzo 2011 Director of the Year in the higher education sector. Jaccuzzo is the first campus police chief in the South and the first in Louisiana to receive this recognition.

“I had no clue this (the nomination) was taking place,” Jaccuzzo said. “The sergeants put me up for it, and I found out when I was a finalist because they needed a picture of me. I am humbled. With all the larger universities in country, I was stunned to be named the director of the year. It’s a great recognition for the university and myself. It adds a level of credibility to the department and shows that we offer the best services that a university police department can provide.”

According to Campus Security Magazine, the award is presented to an individual who shows outstanding leadership skills, ingenuity, selflessness and overall achievement.

“The university community is very proud of the accomplishments of our police department, under the leadership of Craig Jaccuzzo,” said Dr. Eugene Dial Jr., Nicholls’ vice president for student affairs and enrollment services, in a printed statement. “This outstanding recognition is well-deserved.”

Jaccuzzo’s commendation is backed by more than 21 years of law enforcement experience. He began his career as a 17-year-old patrol officer in the Bayou Blue area. During his two decades of service, Jaccuzzo earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and masters in management from Nicholls. He has also worked for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Department as supervisor of the public housing section.

As police chief at Nicholls, Jaccuzzo oversees the deparment’s 18 police officers. “My previous experience fits well with police administration,” he said. “All officers at Nicholls are post-certified – they are not just security officers – and not all universities have a full fledged police department like we have here.”

The department’s list of responsibilities is long, but Jaccuzzo has led the way to excellence undeterred.

“When you area policing a university, there is a lot to take into consideration – things like crowd control, housing, hurricane and disaster evacuations,” the campus police chief said. “It is very complex to manage, like a city within a city. In regular law enforcement, you usually become a specialist in one field and stay with it for your career. It’s not that way with the Nicholls Police Department. With events like Hurricane Katrina and the Virginia Tech shootings, we are being challenged with diverse situations like regular police departments, and we are exposed to every form of law enforcement.”

Jaccuzzo praised his coworker’s efforts to be the best team possible.

“The training for these officers in the university setting is a vast variety, and they are the best at their field,” he said. “They are in a league above themselves just because of all their responsibilities.”

In his eight years as police chief, Jaccuzzo has made drastic and positive changes to the agency including building a new facility with an updated communications system, applying for grants to help over the cost of replacing outdated radios and working with state Rep. Jerry Gisclair to pass a law requiring all sex offenders to register with campus police when they become university students, volunteers or employees.

“We were using the most basic form of radio communication – a two-way in house system, and now we have 700 dual-band radio system,” he said. “We are now state-wide with all law enforcement agencies, and we also have a dual band for local communication. There are no other agencies in the region with this system, but we had a definite need for these radios that were compact and unique to our situation.”

Jaccuzzo and his force determined the need for the new radios during recent hurricanes, and the chief himself wrote a grant request to the Office of Homeland Security asking for radio funding. “In 2004, we were just meeting the minimum technology requirements, just getting by with things, and we wanted to be equal to our peers so that we can better serve the community,” he said.

“We also totally upgraded our dispatch room,” Jaccuzzo said. “We never had the ability to log calls and be able to track when officers were on a call, where they were and record the phone calls. We now have a new software management system that allows us to better document things for when we investigate a case.”

With all the technological upgrades to the department, Jaccuzzo also credited the campus body with helping to keep the campus safe for everyone.

“There is lots of work behind the scenes by our police force to keep Nicholls safe and it starts with the students, faculty and staff,” he said. “We haven’t had one burglary, even with there was a crime wave in the surrounding area, and the Thibodaux Police Department was investigating more than 110 burglaries. We didn’t have a bleed over of these crimes onto our campus.”

Jaccuzzo is credited with going above and beyond to ensure campus safety by writing provisions and working with Gisclair to help pass a bill requiring sex offenders to register with the university if they are attending classes.

“The law that previously only required sex offenders to register with Sheriffs department has been changed so that any sex offenders attending any state university must register with that school’s campus police department or face arrest,” Jaccuzzo said. “We get students from 10 parish area, and there was a delay in informing Nicholls there were sex offenders attending classes. There was little debate against the bill, and it went all the way through. We build off the tools – laws – that we need to do our jobs. I needed to get this tool to prevent any possible harm from our students.”

On July 1, Jaccuzzo will take the next step as his department accredited through the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement. His force will be the first university patrol in the state to undergo accreditation.

“This accreditation will be equivalent to Police Chief Association’s accreditation for municipalities,” Jaccuzzo said. “This is a complex job with lots of details, and we want to make sure things are done correctly. You don’t want a situation to escalate on a college campus.”

In the future, Jaccuzzo said he will also be work with his peers to fine-tune the campus’s threat assessment protocol, mainly monitoring any erratic behavior of students and looking for clues to prevent disasters like those at Virginia Tech, brushing up on spectator sports and boosting safety.

“I love being in public service, serving the public,” Jaccuzzo said. “I always wanted to be a cop.”

Chief Craig Jacuzzo Headshot Campus Police (Misty Leigh McElroy/Nicholls State University) 4/10/12

Misty Leigh McElroy