New UofM police chief opens up about past in Arkansas
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Former Little Rock Police Chief, Keith Humphrey is the new top cop at the University of Memphis.
He has been leading campus safety since February of this year, and says he plans to better protect Memphis’ flagship school using his 34 years of law enforcement experience.
“So really it’s been a whirlwind. You know, my focus has been to become familiar with the population of the university community,” said Chief Humphrey.
Only a few months into his job as the Police Chief at the University of Memphis, he is already hitting goals.
“We’ve gone in and we’re auditing equipment, auditing the needs of the officers, auditing our training, our policies,” he said.
University of Memphis names new police chief
The former Little Rock Police Chief is now the top officer at UofM, leading staff of 31 officers, and protecting a campus with 21,000 students.
Humphrey says he wants to focus on improving officer training, technology and creating a full service police department, including getting body worn cameras, computer aided dispatch and a records management system.
“Computer statistics to look and see where things are happening on campus. You cannot afford to deploy resources and not know where to deploy them at appropriately. That’s a waste of staffing,” said Humphrey.
It’s no small feat protecting this campus that sits in the middle a city dealing with its own crime issues
“I’ve been to a couple of meetings where students have been very candid. You know, how do we keep our campus safe when we’re in the city of Memphis? And my focus is that we are a community and this is a priority for this police department,” Humphrey said.
He says that means working with the Memphis Police Department, attending some of their meetings, looking at crime trends, and mapping boundaries moving forward.
“Those are things that help us address issues or minimize the the violence, the violent crimes or other crimes that may be affecting the city to prevent them from coming on to the campus,” he said.
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Chief Humphrey may be looking forward, but what he leaves behind in Little Rock can not be ignored. The new Chief here was an embattled one in the Natural State.
When he retired in 2022 as Little Rock Police Chief, he had only been on that job 3 years,
but he had generated a lot of attention – not all good.
“I would describe it as a learning moment and a challenging, but positive tenure there,” he said.
The Chief was challenged with an internal HR investigation where his own officers accused him of discrimination, racial retaliation and creating hostile work conditions.
“Let me just say, whenever you come in and you are a change agent, you are talking reform. When there’s a culture and you’re trying to change that culture, you’re going to have people pushing back,” said Humphrey.
There was so much pushback that Humphrey himself later sued 20 officers and the Fraternal Order of Police for organizing an effort to get him off the job.
A high court threw out Humphrey’s lawsuit.
Humphrey himself was the subject of five lawsuits in his short tenure at Little Rock, accused of abuse of power and retaliation.
He was also the center of a criminal and internal affairs investigation for firing his weapon during an altercation between two people at a store on New Year’s Eve in 2022, on a night when command staff was helping patrol.
“Before I could get on the radio, another female stepped out of a parked vehicle and started shooting into a crowd. I didn’t have time to get on the radio. So I got out, identified myself, and she was continually shooting and I fired my weapon. At that time, she ceased firing, and I was able to get her handcuffed,” said Humphrey.
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The woman was not hit.
The situation led to an internal investigation, as well as a criminal investigation. Humphrey was eventually cleared.
“Anytime you pull your weapon and you have to discharge it, that’s not ever easy. But, you know, it’s something that happened. A young lady’s life was saved,” said Humphrey. “More people could have been injured. And I followed the force continuum and was cleared criminally. And from what I gather, the internal investigation, same thing was cleared. I followed policy.”
And now for Humphrey, the big picture is about his new job at UofM, and doing all he can to keep campus safe.
“Things happen for a reason. And I think I’ve gone through everything in my life, in my career to prepare me for this job. This is a special job,” he said.
Chief Humphrey says a $5 million safety grant was awarded to UofM, allowing them to increase cameras on campus and make other security upgrades.
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