History

In the late 1940's, exact date unknown, a Parking and Safety Committee of concerned staff and faculty was formed. From these beginnings the present Traffic and Parking Division has evolved. At that time, Parking and Safety was the responsibility of the Dean of Men in the Student Affairs Office. As time passed, Safety was made into a separate unit and Parking became the Traffic and Parking Division of the University Security Department.

In the mid 1950's the campus was beginning to grow and to actively seek and attract first generation college students. These students, for the most part, were from middle income families. One of the selling points of the University was that a vehicle was not a necessary college expense.

In 1955 the Board of Trustees approved the recommendation made by the parking committee that fines for traffic and parking violations for faculty, staff, and students be levied and collected locally, and that a fee be levied for the privilege of using University facilities. Tickets written before this were on city citations. This opened the way for writing University parking tickets and generating revenue for parking facilities.

In 1956 the Board of Trustees passed a recommendation that beginning 1957 freshmen would not be permitted vehicles and each successive year the restriction would extend to the next advanced class. This was to attain the long range objective of a "walking and bicycling" campus. In the late 50's and early 60's students found with an illegal vehicle parked within 20 miles of the campus were fined $50 and faced a possible suspension from school. Before the mid 50's anyone could have a vehicle on campus and parking decals were free

In 1996, University Security Department was renamed to the Department of Public Safety. The Department of Public Safety included the University Police, Parking Division, and Key Control.

The first permanent location for the Watchmen in the 1940’s was an old house at the corner of Grand and University near Woody Hall. It was described as “awful small, crowded, and pretty old” when the Security Office moved into it.

The next new office site was located in an old barracks north of the football field off of Harwood Avenue (Lincoln Drive). The entire 9-man security force was located in one 12 x 30 room which served as the office, locker room, communications area, and storage room. The “Communications Officer” shared one phone with the janitorial crew that occupied the office next to them. The phone sat on a ledge built into the wall between the two offices.

In 1959 the Security Office was moved into Anthony Hall where it occupied four rooms and had its own telephone.

In February, 1961, the Security Office was moved into the old Student Center, which was an old barracks building located north of the present Student Center, at the end of Harwood Avenue (near the location of Faner). This facility had five rooms plus a kitchen.

In 1962 the Security Office was moved into the “Conference House” located north of the football field in the grassy area between the field and Harwood Avenue (now called Lincoln Drive). The entire house was given to the Security Office and had eight rooms.

In 1965 the Security Office was moved to a location once used as the President’s Home and later the Student Health Service. This location was inside the old white house on South Washington Street (formerly Lewis Avenue) under the north pedestrian overpass. In 1970, eight trailers were added to this location to house the Security Office.

During the mid-1970’s, the Security Office was moved into Washington Square, Building A, which was next to Parking Division’s location in Washington Square, Building D. Key Control was also relocated from the Home Economics Building (Quigley Hall) into the Washington Square complex (little a).

In the mid-1980's, the Security Office's 'Patrol Division' needed room to expand. A house located immediately north of Washington Square A and referred to as 'The White House' was utilized by the patrol division as a squad room. University Housing's administration offices, which shared space with Parking Division in Washington Square D, needed room to expand. Major departmental shuffling occurred that in the end located DPS in Washington Square Buildings A and B (including little a), Continuing Education in Washington Square C, and Housing Administration in Washington Square D. In Washington Square B, Parking Division was relocated to the ground floor, Patrol Operations on the first floor, and Support Services on the second floor. 'The White House' was turned over to the Saluki Patrol for their operations and locker room space.

• 1952 Joe Montgomery, First Police Chief
• 1956 Leonard Turner, First Patrol Sergeant
• 1959 Thomas L. Leffler First Police Administrative Director. Leffler would serve as Director of Security until the mid 1970’s
• 1959 Don Ragsdale First Assistant Security Director. Mr. Ragsdale left the Security Office in 1968 to become the Jackson County Coroner for a number of years.

• 1963 Carl Kirk, First Investigations Sergeant. Sergeant Carl Kirk was promoted to Captain and stayed with the Security Office until his retirement. He was credited with creating Narcotics and Community Relations sections.
• 1965 Charles Marvin, First Key Control Supervisor. Lieutenant Charles Marvin was responsible for taking a disorganized Key Control system and turning it into the largest master key control operation in the United States at that time. His system utilized three master keys to operate over 85,000 key-lock combinations. Lt. Marvin retired from the Security Department.
• 1969 Gary Wilson and Dan Keller, Training and Administrative Section. These two men were responsible for creating a training division for the officers, and Mr. Keller went on to handle the personnel, planning, and information resource center.
• 1970 Virgil Trummer, Assistant Security Director. Bernard Nigg, Loss Prevention and Inventory Officer. Edward McCue, Information Resource Officer.
• 1970 Patrick Coniglio, Ralph Pearce, David Hunsaker, first SIUC police officers shot in the line of duty. All lived.
• 1971 William Barnett, Training Section. The training section was separated away from Administrative functions and headed by Sgt. Barnett.
• 1971 Donald White, Police Community Relations. Mr. White was later promoted to sergeant, and left the Security office to become the Sheriff of Jackson County for a number of years.
• 1973 Martha Bennett, First female officer hired.
• 1974 Tom Leffler retired. Virgil Trummer approved as Director.

• 1983 Virgil Trummer reassigned to other duties by Clarence Dougherty. Assistant Director Robert Harris named Interim Director. Harris formally approved as Director in 1984.
• 1992 Robert Harris retired. Kay Doan named Interim Director. Sam Jordan approved as Director.
• 2003 Sam Jordan retired. Kay Doan named Interim Director.
• 2004 Todd Sigler approved as Director.
• 2004 Kay Doan, First female promoted to Captain. Ms. Doan also served as interim director in 1992 and 2004.
• 2013 Todd Sigler retired. Benjamin Newman named Director.