State Senator Presents Senate Bill 50 on OU’s Campus

State Senator Tom Butler (D) of the Alabama House of Representatives met with President Delbert Baker today inside his Blake Center office on Oakwood University’s campus Monday afternoon, June 1, to present the signed Senate Bill 50, which allows for the formation of a campus police department at Oakwood University.  The bill was sponsored in the state legislature by Senator Butler, at the request of Oakwood University.

With passage on May 15 by the Alabama legislature, the bill was sent to Governor Bob Riley and was signed into law Friday, May 22, according to Lewis Eakins, Director of Public Safety at the University (OU).  Chief Eakins and several of his staff members attended the presentation of the bill, along with Vice President for Financial Services Sabrina Cotton and Director of Public Relations Michele Solomon.

As stated in an earlier news brief, this will serve as a deterrent to trespassers and others who may come to the campus to commit criminal offenses, but crime deterrence is only one of several reasons why this transition was sought.  There will be unlimited grant opportunities to fund salaries for additional officers and training, and for the purchase of equipment, access control systems, CCTV systems, and other electronic countermeasure systems.