Lauretta Hill appointed to lead Department of Public Safety


By
 in ,
Lauretta Hill poses for a photo. She wears a dark uniform with a star badge and there is an American flag behind her.
Hill is a “team builder and transformational leader,” Associate Senior Vice President for Safety and Risk Assurance Erroll Southers said in a statement to the Trojan community Friday.

Lauretta Hill will serve as the new assistant vice president/chief of the Department of Public Safety beginning Jan. 23, Associate Senior Vice President for Safety and Risk Assurance Erroll Southers announced in a Universitywide email Friday morning. Hill will replace current Interim Chief David Carlisle. 

Hill has extensive experience with law enforcement. According to the University’s statement, she graduated from the FBI National Academy, the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management School and Cornell University’s program in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Building a Diverse Workforce.

Before coming to USC, Hill served as deputy chief at the Miami Beach Police Department and as the assistant chief at the Arlington Police Department in Texas. Hill then became the chief of police at the Dallas College Police Department and led the police forces of seven separate campuses for six years. Hill oversaw a community of between 75,000 and 90,000 students at Dallas College, compared to USC’s 49,500. 

At Dallas College, Hill oversaw transformations that included new policy implementation, new staff hires to align with said policies and a total restructuring of the department. These changes — according to the Universitywide email — “resulted in consistency in operations across all seven campuses in the college system and enhanced accountability and transparency by the department to the students, faculty, staff, and community stakeholders.” 

The search to find and appoint a new DPS leader followed the retirement of former Chief John Thomas on Jan. 12. The University formed a committee of 22 community members — including students, faculty, staff and community leaders — and hired external executive search firm Spelman Johnson to find the best candidate to fill the position. 

The DPS Chief Search Committee hosted eight community input sessions in Spring 2022, where community members gave input on the future chief and DPS as a whole. Each of the candidates went through several rounds of interviews with subcommittees and senior vice presidents, as well as many assessments by consultants hired by the University. The candidates also met with community members who work closely with DPS as well as President Carol Folt.

In April, the University announced that the 36-candidate pool had been narrowed down to two. Each candidate participated in a community input session at Wallis Annenberg Hall and responded to questions from community members before going through a final round of interviews with University leadership. 

USC had said that the new chief would be named in May; however, the search was later extended and the position title, which was previously executive director/chief of public safety, changed. The search committee accepted potential candidate applications until the end of August. In November, the pool was cut back down from 30 candidates to six semi-finalists. 

In an interview with the Daily Trojan Friday, Southers said that, among other things, Hill’s time at Dallas College impressed the University and led them to offer her the position. Southers said Hill holds a deep understanding of community needs and relationships at USC. 

“She understands the student body, understands faculty and staff,” Southers said. “She understood Clery [the set of procedures for reporting and cataloging crime on and around campus] and compliance issues that we have to adhere to in a university which are very, very important.” 

Southers said that he hopes Hill can take USC’s security “to the next level” and looks forward to working with her beginning in January. 

“With Chief Hill’s hiring,” Southers said, “I honestly believe that we will be a department that other colleges or universities will look to when they try to implement or consider innovative and transformative policies and procedures to take care of their campus community.”