New Police Chief Named
By Rohma Abbas Stony Brook's head of Emergency Management was named the new university police chief on Oct. 29. At an announcement in the chapel of the Wang Center, President Shirley Strum Kenny and former Suffolk Police Commissioner John Gallager said Robert J. Lenahan, the university's director of Campus Emergency Management, was taking over the department. Lenahan, a graduate of the Police Management Institute of Columbia University, had a 26-year career in the New York City Police Department. In 2003, he was commanding officer of the 25th precinct in Manhattan, and three years later became commanding officer of the 32nd precinct. Lenahan worked on ground zero for six months after 9/11, and in 2004 he worked at the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden. He handled perimeter security for both. At his introduction on Wednesday, Lenehan said he first became involved with Stony Brook when he brought his children to soccer camp on campus. He became more intimately involved when his daughter was hospitalized at Stony Brook Hospital for two and a half weeks when her lung collapsed. "I can’t tell you how I pleased I was with the health care they provided," Lenehan said. "They were so friendly." Shortly thereafter, in Feb. 2008, Lenehan began working at Stony Brook as the director of Campus Emergency Management. There, he developed and continued emergency plans and strategies that were put in place after 9/11, according to a university press release. President Kenny said that due to budgetary constraints, Lenahan will keep his position as director of Campus Emergency Management on top of his new job as police chief. John Gallager, a member of the search committee that chose Chief Lenehan, said that out of the 80 candidates interviewed, Lenahan demonstrated, "excellence and a vision for the future." "The committee was overwhelming in its choice," said Gallagher. "I’m very pleased he was selected." |
