Since joining Cal State Fullerton’s police department in 1999, Police Chief Judi King has focused her efforts on making sure people see the department as a professional agency.

After working for Falls Church Police Department in Virginia, King became an assessor for the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. In this role, she visited municipal and university police departments.

“When we were doing on-sites, it was amazing to us how professional the university police departments were that we were accrediting. And yet, as municipal officers, we never really thought of them as being equals. So it was in our thoughts that the word needs to get out about the fact that university police departments are truly viable policing agencies,” King said.

It was because of this interest in university policing that King became an officer at Cal State Long Beach’s police department and her current role as chief of CSUF’s police department.

“My main job is to set the tone for the department and set a course of direction and then get everyone to follow in that direction and basically to provide the resources people need to do their jobs effectively,” King said.

One of the goals that King had for university police was making sure the department was reaccredited. In order for this to happen, CSUF’s police facility needed to be improved or upgraded to be in compliance with accreditation guidelines.

King and the Vice President for Administration and Finance, Willie Hagan, made the project a top priority because of the groundbreaking for the new police building is scheduled for October 2007.

King has been instrumental in upgrading the department’s equipment and tools and preparing the university for emergency situations, said Lt.

Will Glen with CSUF’s police department.

When King came to the department, she saw the need for the officers to have a clear set of goals and regulations.

“I think when officers see a focus in what the department does and where it’s going that does improve morale. The university is better for it,” Glen said.

All of the universities in the CSU system operate under the same guidelines, and King serves as a system-wide coordinator. In this function she sets standards so that each CSU will have uniformity in its activities.

From the time that King was young, she wanted to be a police officer. She served as a police explorer for the city of Westminster and eventually went to Cal State Long Beach and received a degree in criminal justice.

She later received a master’s degree in public administration, King said.

“I always liked being active and being out and doing things and meeting people. And to me policing was the only kind of job I could ever see myself really doing,” she said.

Debbie Ellis, Administrative Services supervisor and accreditation manager for university police, said that surrounding police departments and the community now view CSUF’s police department as a professional department.

“We are looked at as a truly professional, confident police department. And that’s mostly through the efforts of Chief King,” Ellis said.