IUPD chief resigns

In a 1988 protest at the University president's office, students demanded that black officers be hired for the IU Police Department. The department had none at the time.\nAlready a lieutenant for IU's Indianapolis campus police force, Paul Norris transferred to IU in 1989 and became IU Bloomington's only black officer.\nNorris said it was no big deal for him -- he had been the only one before.#\nThe protests were the largest at IU since anti-war protests in the 1970s, the IDS reported. And the request for black officers was only one of a list of the IU Black Student Union's 10 demands.\nNow Norris, 52, who has served as IU's police chief since 1993, is leaving to be police chief at the University of Virginia, where he'll command a larger force and get a $20,000 raise.\nEarning $75,452 this year, Norris said he is the lowest-paid police chief in the Big Ten. The University of Virginia offered $95,000 and other incentives.\nVirginia has about 18,000 students, while IU has 37,000, Norris said.\nBut IUPD has fewer officers than the University of Virginia's police department: IUPD has 47, while Virginia has 65, Norris said.\nNorris called the opening at the college founded by Thomas Jefferson in Charlottesville, Virginia, "a good opportunity." The campus is 110 miles southwest of Washington, D.C.\n"I had always promised my kids I would stay here until they graduated high school," Norris said.\nWhen they graduated a few years ago, he began looking for openings in other police forces.\nNorris plans to start at Virginia in August. He said he has no idea who will replace him at IU.\nIU officials were unavailable to say when the search for Norris' replacement would begin.\nNorris attended Bloomington High School and IU, and his family lives in Bloomington. He joined the IU Police Department in Indianapolis in 1970.\nGeorge Huntington, who was chief before Norris, said he left the department in good hands.\n"He served well while I was his immediate commander," Huntington said. "I found him pleasant to work with, and competent."\nDuring the years, Norris counts the department's emphasis on employee education as one of his greatest accomplishments. He said IU officers are allowed six free credit hours a semester by the University. Norris has encouraged, and in some cases required, his officers to further their education by taking advantage of free hours.\nNorris said another high point of his stint as chief has been working with the IUPD Academy, which has placed officers in numerous agencies, including the FBI.\n"They're snatched up," Norris said. "No one ever has trouble getting a job."\nNorris has also focused on recruiting minority officers -- six of IUPD's present officers are black. Norris also hired IUPD's first female supervisor.\nThe lack of minority officers when Norris transferred to Bloomington wasn't for a lack of trying, Huntington said. By the early '70s, he said the department was recruiting and hiring officers without racial considerations. But retention was a major problem.\nNorris said one of his greatest thrills at IU was working sporting events and enjoying IU basketball games from the sideline. When he was promoted, other officers wondered if he'd give up sideline duty, he said. But each time, he declined.