Texas Southern University's Police Department suspends employee after MLK Building robbery

Texas Southern University's Police Department chief announced the resignation of one employee and the suspension of another, due to their "dereliction of duty" during Thursday's MLK building robbery.

Above: TSU Police Chief Roger Byars

The burglary, which is the THIRD such incident to occur in the MLK building in 3 months, has placed the school's police department under further scrutiny after its failure to prevent theft to both the MLK building and other buildings across the campus.

Security officials' heads need to start rolling at TSU

For the umpteenth time, the security at Texas Southern University was breached when the School of Communications' Martin Luther King building was burgled late last night or early this morning. Not only were the building's HDTV monitors stolen for the second time in 3 months, but the dean's office was somehow hit by the theft spree.

What makes this latest incident ridiculous is the fact that there were alarms and cameras throughout the building which were fully functional, but the official(s) responsible for ensuring security on the campus reportedly took TWO hours to respond to the alarms.

After the Trae Day shooting at the campus during the summer, President Rudley issued a statement pledging an improvement and increase of the university's security personnel and facilities. In his statement, Rudley said:

During the past year, we have made the following improvements to our security systems:

• increased lighting across the campus, both the interior and the perimeter areas
  
• increased video surveillance cameras across campus, including new sites around the perimeter of the university
  
• increased police presence and patrols during peak hours
  
• increased foot patrols across the campus
  added bicycle patrols
  
• provided continuous inspection of the emergency call boxes to ensure functionality
  
• provided escort services for students, faculty, staff and visitors
  
• increased building access security measures
  
• increased specialized training for all police officers, including criminal investigation training, and training for police leadership through the FBI National Academy.

My honest opinion is that the University's Department of Safety needs to undergo a radical revamp, because it is inexplicable how often the security officials have failed to be proactive where violence on the campus is concerned. There is no point sugar-coating the incident and making it seem like an issue which can be easily rectified.