University Times

Citing personal reasons, Pitt Public Safety director Rick Boyd resigned from his job May 16. Because of leave time, however, he will remain on the University payroll until Aug. 16.

Associate Vice Chancellor for Business John DeVitto has assumed control of Pitt's 70-officer police department, the third largest police department in Allegheny County.

DeVitto, to whom Boyd had reported, said he does not plan any changes for the department, but will simply keep a closer eye on day-to-day operations.

DeVitto did not know when a search might be conducted for a new public safety director. He said Vice Chancellor for Business Jerome Cochran is looking at "some options. I am sure something will be done. But I don't have a time frame or anything like that." Cochran could not be reached for comment before the University Times went to press.

Boyd came to Pitt in September 1994 from a job as executive director of the Michigan Sheriffs Association. He is leaving, he said, because "it's time for me to make a career change. I am doing what is best for me." Among the career options being pursued by Boyd is a position with Dyncorps in Dallas, Tex. The company has a contract with the United Nations to provide civilian police monitors to Bosnia for investigation of alleged human rights abuses.

"I am hopeful of landing a contract with them," Boyd said. "It's something I know that I would enjoy." Boyd also said he has become tired of the managerial end of police work. "I am not abandoning the idea of management," he added. "I still hold hope for myself that I could be a good manager given the right circumstances." Asked what he meant by "right circumstances," Boyd said only that the Pitt public safety job did not evolve in the direction in which he had hoped.

"That's not the fault of the University of Pittsburgh, because I happen to think it is an outstanding school," Boyd said. "If I end up leaving Pittsburgh, I am going to miss the University and I am going to miss the city a great deal. Right now, as far as I am concerned, I consider Pittsburgh to be my home base and I would like to always consider it to be that." Boyd also said that his resignation has nothing to do with the Pitt police union's almost three-year long contract standoff with the University.

However, Boyd did say that he would accept another law enforcement job in Pittsburgh if one was available. "But in my chosen field, like so many others," he added, "I pretty much have to go where the opportunities lie. And, at this point in time, there aren't many opportunities that exist for me here." University statistics show that during Boyd's tenure arrests by Pitt police doubled and campus crime fell. Last year alone, there was a 9 percent decline in all campus crime and a 24 percent drop in major crimes such as robbery, assault and rape.

Under Boyd, the police department also added several new officers, expanded the bicycle patrol unit and added a motorcycle unit.

–Mike Sajna