SC State University announces new campus police chief

ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WIS) - South Carolina State University (SC State) announced a new police chief has been appointed.

University officials said South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED) senior special agent Richard Johnson, Ph.D., will assume the role on Monday, May 6.

“Dr. Johnson brings 35 years of law enforcement and teaching experience to our campus,” SC State President Alexander Conyers said. “I have full confidence that he will help make SC State a national leader in campus safety and security measures.”

The announcement comes after the university’s former chief, Timothy Taylor was fired, according to the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy file.

The file revealed Taylor was fired Friday, April 12 as “part of leadership realignment by the agency.”

Captain Africa Wells was taking over Taylor’s duty before Johnson’s appointment.

Officials said Johnson was a member of SC State’s Campus Police force from 1990-2000 and taught courses in criminology at the university. He also taught at Claflin University and Virginia Union University.

“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,” said Conyers. “Dr. Johnson’s experience as the SLED community relations agent for the Low Country Region will lend itself to our community policing philosophy at SC State.”

Johnson began his career in 1989 as a corrections officer before joining SLED in 2005.

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