Customer Spotlight: Chief Joseph Monroe

College/Unit: UK Police Department

Describe what you and/or your team does at UK.

The University of Kentucky Police Department was established in 1972 and services all of the property operated and controlled by UK. Our department is comprised of several different units to serve the campus community: Police, Healthcare Security, Crisis Management and Preparedness, ID Operations, Camera and Access Control, Community Services, and Threat Analysis operations. During the COVID response we focused on leading the University’s response from the campus Emergency Operations Center.

Talk about the ways you’ve collaborated with ITS and how it impacted your work.

We have collaborated closely over the last year with ITS in building out a 400 bed mobile field hospital in Nutter Field House that required a robust infrastructure. The ITS team was able to build out the network as well as set up mobile cell towers inside the field house. The ITS team also supported our initiatives for COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites. The close relationship that the public safety team has with ITS has greatly benefited the services that are provided to the community. Without this relationship and commitment to working together, our goals could not have been accomplished.