Tech Police Aim To Expand Presence On Campus

Tennessee Tech’s Police Department wants to promote and expand its student engagement efforts on campus.

Police Chief Fred Nichols said the department already has services that many do not know about such as providing lectures on drugs and alcohol or active shooter situations. Nichols said his main goal is to take what the department is already doing and provide those things on a bigger scale.

“We’re a part of students affairs, so that word of mouth gets out, obviously,” Nichols said. “We’d also like to get out more, put more of that stuff out on our website in the university police. Put that out there so that, okay, this is what we are currently engaged in and what we’d like to do in the future.”

Nichols said he would also like to start a rape aggression defense program to teach students how to protect themselves. Nichols said one of the department’s lieutenants will begin training to become an instructor for that program in 2025.

“We’ve also trained with the county partners, Cookeville City, Putnam County Emergency Management, EMS, fire and all that,” Nichols said. “We’ve actually done some active drills, one of them that was on campus here back in August. So we’re kind of like an invitation, okay, we are part of the community and we want to work with everybody and show that we are very, very helpful and very cooperative out there.”

Nichols said the lectures provided by the department are usually for campus groups like fraternities or sororities that request an officer come and talk about a certain subject. Nichols said the effort to increase these services has been a key part of his vision for the department since taking over as chief in August.

“We’re very professional as it is, but we need to continue to be professional,” Nichols said. “And I think we also need to give some more services.”