UNLV names police chief

Wednesday, May 3, 2000 | 11 a.m.

Jose Elique, the newly hired chief of the beleaguered UNLV Police Department, says he hopes to bring noticeable change -- including more community-type policing -- to the force within two years.

Elique, who in nine years as director of public safety for the City University of New York's 21 campuses built a 700-member force from scratch, starts his $95,000-a-year job as UNLV's director of public safety June 1.

"I pride myself in being a good manager in change," said Elique, noting that he is familiar with problems of alleged police abuse and accusations of racial discrimination toward students by campus police.

Elique, who was born in New York and raised in Puerto Rico and New York, says that while change won't come overnight to UNLV, he hopes to create a force that will mirror the UNLV community.

"I want to see discernible differences in two years," the 55-year-old law enforcement officer of 30 years said. "People will know something has changed in that time."

Elique, pronounced el-EE-kay, says that the measure of a good police officer "is not necessarily in the number of arrests he makes but in the service he provides and the quality of life that is improved."

Some in the 21-member UNLV police department want the force to resemble state police and the Metro Police Department. UNLV officials want a force that practices community policing.

"Jose has built a good force at CUNY and is being called upon here to fine tune this one," said Bob Ackerman, director of UNLV student services.

Ackerman says the search committee questioned why Elique wanted to leave a more high-profile job for a smaller one.

"We have discussed this at great length, and he says he wants a more direct hand in being part of a campus community," Ackerman said. "In his current job, he has people who report to him and he administrates things. He wants a different life experience."

Elique worked 21 years for the New York Port Authority before taking over at CUNY. He has a bachelor's of arts in communication from Adelphi University on Long Island, N.Y., and was trained in police management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

In the late 198Os Elique was in charge of police operations at Hudson River crossings Port Authority terminals and the World Trade Center at a time when it was being investigated on allegations of illegal searches, stops and unjustified arrests by officers. Elique supported the investigation, which resulted in the suspension of several officers.

In 1991 while Elique was in charge of the the campus police force at New York City College, a campus in the CUNY system, a celebrity basketball game on campus with rapper Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs left nine people crushed to death after a riot. An internal investigation found that security procedures were not followed.

Elique beat out four other candidates for the UNLV job, including retired deputy director of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles Raymond Sparks.

Jace Radke and Valerie Miller contributed to this report.