ORANGEBURG COUNTY, S.C. — South Carolina State University has a new police chief with a background in law and education.
The university announced on Thursday that Dr. Richard Johnson would head its law enforcement agency. Johnson is a senior special agent with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and has teaching experience at the university.
In a statement, President Alexander Conyers said Dr. Johnson has 35 years of law enforcement and teaching experience.
"I have full confidence that he will help make SC State a national leader in campus safety and security measures," Conyers said.
The university confirmed in late April that its past police chief, Timothy Taylor, was no longer employed there. A spokesperson wouldn't elaborate on Taylor's departure because it was a personnel matter.
However, documents filed with the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy stated that Taylor was fired, with his last day listed as April 12. The reason provided was described as a "leadership realignment by the agency." Taylor had been with the department since 2021 and worked there briefly in 2019. Another department officer, Captain Jeblonski Green, retired on April 17.
According to information provided by South Carolina State University, its newest police chief is no stranger to working on the campus and was a member of the campus police force between 1990 and 2000. He then spent five years as a criminal investigator for the South Carolina Department of Corrections before joining SLED in 2005.
Officials said he started his career in 1989 as a corrections officer with the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He went on to teach criminology classes at South Carolina State and Claflin universities and at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia.
The university said he received his associate arts degree in criminal justice from Denmark Technical College, his bachelor of science in criminal justice from Voorhees University in 1994, his master of arts in criminal justice from the University of South Carolina in 1998 and his PH.D. in public safety from Capella University in Minneapolis in 2015.
“Based on his track record at SLED and at the State Department of Corrections, I know his expertise is precisely what SC State needs in the Campus Police Department’s leadership,” Conyers said in Thursday's statement.
His first day is Monday, May 6.