SHSU Signs Agreement With Houston Police

From left, Ward, Gaertner, Brown, Bradford

The agreement was signed during a meeting in Houston between Houston Mayor Lee Brown and Chief of Police C. O. Bradford representing the city and James F. Gaertner, SHSU president, Richard Ward, dean and director of the Criminal Justice Center, David Payne, vice president for academic affairs, and Charles Friel, distinguished professor of criminal justice.

Friel is also a past dean and director of the Criminal Justice Center and a faculty member since 1967.

Since the founding of the Criminal Justice Center by the Texas Legislature in 1963, the center and Houston Police Department have worked together on numerous research projects, in weekend programs for officers to further their education and in internships for Sam Houston State students.

"This agreement will take this whole thing up a notch," said Friel.

According to the memorandum, the agreement will "substantially increase cooperation between these two departments, eliminate waste of public resources associated with the duplication of efforts, and result in better collection and analysis of data."

The agreement will be administered by a policy board that will include the Houston police chief and Sam Houston State CJ Center director. An operations group composed of assistant chiefs and others from the department and faculty members from the center will be responsible for the implementation of various educational, training, research and technical assistance initiatives.

Friel expects that additional departments from Sam Houston State may become involved in various projects, and that similar agreements may be set up with additional agencies, such as Harris County courts.

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SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
Oct. 19, 2001
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