By Katie Perkowski

Maj. Joe Monroe has been named UK’s permanent police chief after a three-year tenure as interim police chief.

Monroe said he found out about his promotion Tuesday night.

“I’d hoped that my qualifications as well as my period as interim chief proved a lot to people that I could do the job and do it successfully,” Monroe said.

He said the promotion would not change his job duties but would provide closure.

Monroe said over the last three to four years UK Police has had four to six officers leave because they were tired of not having a permanent chief.

“It gives us some closure to that unknown of being interim, of what was going to happen if we had a chief come in from the outside,” Monroe said.

Monroe said he hopes to make UK Police one of the top 10 departments in the state and top 20 in the country for universities, according to the news release.

One way he plans to do so is by improving communications with the university, he said.

One plan he has is to have a “lunch with the chief.” He said there will be a link on the department’s Web site where students can register to have lunch with him to discuss and address concerns they may have.

In the spring semester, he said he will work with Student Government to come out with a student focus group. The group will pick out random students around campus and meet with them about once a month to get feedback on certain issues, such as possible plans from the department.

Monroe is the first UK police chief to have moved up through the ranks of the department, according to the news release. He began his UK career in 1994 as a patrol officer, and then went on to serve as a detective, sergeant, lieutenant and major.

Monroe said he thinks his progression shows UK has good, quality people that work for the department.

“I think it is a great accomplishment and I feel good about it. It shows that hard work and determination, setting yourself to be successful by setting reachable goals is an easy thing to do as long as you stay focused,” he said.

Monroe said one thing he has focused on is developing people underneath him by sending them to leadership programs to get them ready for future roles.

Monroe said he has wanted to be a police chief somewhere since he arrived at UK, and he has worked toward this goal by attending different kinds of leadership conventions.

Anthany Beatty, vice president for public safety, said the university chose Monroe for the job because of his leadership abilities, his knowledge of the campus and his positive working relationship across the campus.

Beatty said a national search was not necessary because Monroe had “earned this opportunity,” according to the news release.

The university waited three years to select a permanent chief because the administration wanted to make sure to avoid missteps of the past, Beatty said.

“As we look back, we realize that there were a couple of missteps in terms of getting the right person to be chief of police,” he said. “The reason (for waiting) was we wanted to make sure that given what we were seeing with Major Monroe’s leadership, that, that would be sustained and that he would be the person that would lead the agency into the future.”