[Note: Click here for a high resolution photo of Michael R. Snellgrove.]
Michael R. Snellgrove has been named Vanderbilt University’s assistant chief of police.
Snellgrove, who joined the university June 2, most recently served as a division commander at Duke University Police Department.
Snellgrove fills the post previously held by Marlon C. Lynch, the university’s current police chief who assumed the top job in 2007.
As assistant chief, Snellgrove will help oversee one of Tennessee’s largest law enforcement agencies, which provides comprehensive law enforcement and security services to all components of Vanderbilt including the academic campus, medical center and a variety of university-owned facilities throughout the Davidson County area. The department includes 115 commissioned officers and 30 civilian employees.
Vanderbilt’s commissioned police officers are empowered to make arrests as "Special Police Officers," through the authority of the chief of police of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County.
Vanderbilt officers with Special Police Commissions have the same authority as that of a municipal law enforcement officer while on property owned by Vanderbilt, on adjacent public streets and sidewalks, and nearby neighborhoods.
Snellgrove’s law enforcement career includes serving as chief of police and assistant chief at Southern Methodist University.While at SMU, Snellgrove implemented community-oriented policing which enhanced officer visibility and improved communications between the department and the community. Increased security measures at the university led to Readers Digest naming SMU as the safest private university in Texas and the 16th safest college in the United States.
Snellgrove holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Valdosta State University and is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy.
Media Contact: Princine Lewis, 615-322-NEWS
princine.lewis@vanderbilt.edu
.