by Emily Snell | Sep 17, 2012 | News Slider
A man was arrested on campus Saturday afternoon because he had been “drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana, eating mushrooms and taking acid.” Lipscomb’s Director of Security Brad Wyatt said the man, Jacob David Steele–who is not a Lipscomb student–drove his vehicle on to campus property and parked in a university parking garage. The man was charged with public intoxication, Wyatt said. “There was a Sodexo employee who observed this guy, and he let us know,” Wyatt said. According to an incident report from the Metropolitan Police Department, Lipscomb Security and Safety requested that Metro police send an officer. When police arrived, Steele was in handcuffs and leg restraints and “was slurring his words and was incoherent at times.” Steele told officers that he had been using the illegal substances previously mentioned. The report said Steele was “a danger to himself and others” and was taken into custody “without incident.” Wyatt said Lipscomb’s general policy is to call Metro police if an arrest needs to be made. “We can detain somebody,” he said, “but if somebody needs to be arrested, we’re going to call...
by Emily Snell | Aug 27, 2012 | News Slider
Two armed Campus Security and Safety officers are on patrol during every shift this semester. Brad Wyatt, director of security, and Phil Ellenburg, Lipscomb’s general counsel, said the university has been working on the arming process for a few years. “For the last five years, we’ve been really intentional about upgrading all of our security and safety, emergency planning, everything across the board for the institution,” Ellenburg said. “We’re trying to improve and increase our professionalism. Over the last five years a lot of improvements have been made, but over the last two years, we’ve had a very intentional process where we’ve done several things, and the arming component was a part of that whole process.” Ellenburg said there weren’t specific events that prompted the decision to begin the armed patrols over the summer, rather it was “a normal step in enhanced service.” Wyatt said Lipscomb’s security and safety department, in recent years, intentionally has been hiring officers who would fit the qualifications for an armed officer. The department created a “Security Officer II” position, which requires an advanced security background for example as a police officer, military police officer, armed hospital or prison security officer. Wyatt and Ellenburg said all of the university’s security officers are licensed with the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, which handles both unarmed and armed security licensing. “Our internal policies as far as training and standards for officers are a lot higher than the baseline for the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance,” Ellenburg said. In addition to licensing, Lipscomb hired a security expert from the Boston area to analyze the campus...
by Cory Woodroof | Nov 14, 2011 | News Slider
You might think that a college campus would be one of the safer places to rest your head. Walking to and from classes in broad daylight might be a simple, safe task, but think about if that one late-night class runs a few minutes over, or if that study session with a friend goes longer than expected. The long, dark walk back to your car in the dead of night can be a stressful experience, especially during the winter months when the moon creeps out quicker each evening. For a certain Vanderbilt student, this late-night stroll turned into something different entirely. In the early hours of Nov. 3, a female senior of the university was held at gunpoint by an unknown criminal. The man demanded her purse and quickly fled the scene once the bag was procured. This scary incident occurred during the student’s walk back to her on-campus apartment. The Lipscomb Security and Safety team works day and night to ensure that events like this don’t happen to Lipscomb students. Brad Wyatt, the director of security on campus, made it clear that the incident on Vanderbilt’s campus was unfortunate, but he said he hopes Lipscomb students understand that events like this have never occurred on Lipscomb’s campus during his four years as director of security. In fact, a mugging of that nature has never occurred on campus. He said he hopes that Lipscomb understand that, while on Lipscomb’s campus, safety is a top priority for his team. During the upcoming holiday season, Wyatt hopes that students will use common sense to stay safe – traveling in groups and...
