APSU reorganizes public safety, names new police chief

Sammie Williams is sworn in as chief of police by APSU President Alisa White.

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Sammie Williams doesn’t like to be the center of attention. On a recent Friday morning, he stood uncomfortably inside the Austin Peay State University Browning Building while a crowd of onlookers applauded.

“I’m very proud of you, and I’m very proud of our police officers on campus,” Alisa White, APSU president, said.

That morning, friends and family cheered Williams, an 11-year veteran of the Austin Peay Campus Police, because he’d just been sworn in as the University’s new police chief. His promotion was part of a recent consolidation of the University’s safety and security departments into a single unit, Public Safety. The new unit will oversee campus police, parking and transportation, emergency management, and environmental health and safety.

As part of the reorganization, Michael Kasitz, former APSU police chief, was named assistant vice president for Public Safety.

Chief Sammie Williams and Michael Kasitz, assistant vice president for public safety

Under the reorganization, the University also is creating a parking and transportation auxiliary unit. Rasheda Smith, parking office supervisor, will serve as the director of that new unit. Carl Gerhold, assistant director of environment health and safety, was named director of that department.

The reorganization went into effect on Monday, July 1.

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