IU Southeast hired a new chief of police, Charles Edelen, on Sept. 1.
Edelen came from the Louisville Metro Police Department, where he worked for 21 years. His experience as a firefighter, member of the bomb squad and the hostage negotiating team qualified him for the position.
Edelen was on the hostage negotiating team for about eight years. He was also part of the bomb squad when the city and county police departments merged in Louisville.
“I was a commander since after the merger in 2003 to December 2007,” he said.
The job opening at IU Southeast, he said, was different than anything Edelen had done before.
“I wasn’t really looking for a job, I was very happy where I was, but I saw this and I thought it would be an opportunity,” he said.
He was not the only person applying for this position, and had to go through two interviews. He submitted his rėsumė and was a finalist in the phone interview.
“That’s when I came on, and that was an all-day interview basically,” he said. “I met with the officers first, and did a campus tour and it was literally from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.”
“With my background, experience, and interests with the firefighting and bomb stuff and the hasmat stuff that I had done, all that is part of this job,” Edelen said.
Edelen has only worked at IU Southeast for less than a month, but he said he is enjoying his new environment.
“I like the interaction with people,” he said. “That’s something that I was missing at my job at LMPD because I was more behind the desk.”
Roger McClellan, office services assistant, said Edelin has already made an impression on the people who he works with.
“So far he’s been a great supervisor,” McClellan said. “He seems like he’s observing, getting a grasp on everything. I’m sure he will make some great changes that will benefit the entire department. He’s very nice, though, and cooperative.”
However, there is something he has to do before he can act as a police officer. Edelen has to achieve his certification in Indiana.
“I have to get the Indiana certification first before I can have any powers or really can do any police action,” he said.
He not only has goals for himself, but for the IUS Police as well.
“I think we have a good department now, and I would just like to improve what I can,” he said. “So, I’m going to take a look at their policies and procedures and see if any of those need to be updated, which I think is a possibility.”
Edelen said he is not sure of all changes that need to be made because he is still getting to know his responsibilities and the job. Even though he is still getting used to his job, he has offered some valuable information about safety on campus.
“You have to be conscious of your surroundings at all times,” he said. “That’s what I would advise anybody. You have to know who’s around you and what actions they are doing.”
He said if you set your purse or school bag down, you have to keep an eye on it. He said you can’t think that nobody’s going to pick it up and walk off with it.
“I don’t think that happens a lot here, but in general if you are aware of your surroundings you are much better prepared to react to something that happens and to prevent any kind of bad things from happening,” he said.
By Katherine Pittelko
Staff Writer
kpittelk@ius.edu