There has been no progress in the hiring of a police chief for UK. The 60 to 70 applications for the position are becoming stagnated, and no one seems to even be questioning a significant leadership role being vacant for so long — in the neighborhood of 30 months.

The track record for the position isn’t necessarily clean, and its certainly understandable that UK would take its time to sift through applicants after making the embarrassing mistake of McDonald Vick, who after being hired had his rug pulled out from under him when it was reported he paid off someone to drop sexual discrimination and illegal wire tapping charges.

But 30 months? A good portion of current UK students were in high school when the “search” began.

The search has no timeline for moving forward, said Anthany Beatty, UK’s vice president for public safety, who oversees UK Police.

It’s incredibly ironic that Beatty is in charge of the police chief selection. This same man, accompanied by another safety official and two UK spokespersons, preached to the Kernel editorial board that safety was one of UK’s top priorities and that whatever was needed, President Lee Todd would do his best to achieve this.

Now, only a few months later, it has been reported by the Kernel that Beatty’s progress is little-to-none on the search, and the plan to act with any kind of timely manner is dismal.

“I don’t know that there’s an actual timeline for filling the position,” Beatty said. “We want to take our time to find the right person to fill the position.”

There is not a single person accountable for such a slow, unproductive process. UK does not seem to be putting any pressure on Beatty, therefore Beatty has no reason to rush and, meanwhile, UK wont allow the person “acting as chief of police” to respond to any questions about the position.

When Interim Police Chief Joe Monroe was contacted for comment, calls from the Kernel were forwarded to UK Public Relations, who referred the Kernel to Beatty. Beatty said Monroe is not available to comment on the situation because he is in the acting position as chief of police.

Requests for comment from UK President Lee Todd were also forwarded to Beatty; a spokesperson for UK Public Relations said because Beatty oversees campus safety and UK Police, he is the administration’s voice on the issue.

So, since no one else will voice their opinions about this fruitless 30-month “search,” here is the opinion of some very concerned students: This is not something to be put off, the police department needs a person the buck stops with — even if it is Monroe.

As for now, all things just circle back to Beatty, where nothing is certain, but anything is possible if you think about it long enough.