'This is the best job in the world' Chief Jack Vickery discusses life on the GTPD
By Thierry Ways Campus Life Staff
"I wanted to be a math teacher," explains Jack Vickery, Chief of the Georgia Tech Police Department, "but by the third quarter of college calculus I had had enough of it!"
I met with him in his office at the GTPD, where he heads the police unit responsible for the safety of our community of 17,000. He is an affable and approachable man who clearly loves his job and is ready to speak with pride about it. Still, he was amused that we would want to run a profile on him. At the onset of the interview he maintained the underspoken, perhaps even timid, attitude of someone accustomed to doing his work quietly, away from the public's attention. Once we started talking about his college years, though, he laughed as he reminisced; the ice was broken.
The college alluded to is none other than the University of Georgia, where Chief Vickery obtained a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and where later, as a graduate student, he became interested in police work. He was transferred to the GTPD 17 years ago, after four years at UGA's Public Safety Department.
How are his experiences as a police officer at UGA and at Tech different? "At Georgia, we had to police the students more," he concludes after a moment's thought. "Here our role is more to protect them."
This is due to the unique characteristics of our campus, urban and at the same time highly residential. "Most of our crime is internal," he explains. "Try finding another college located in the middle of a large city with such a high percentage of students living on campus, spending most of their time there. There aren't very many of those around!"
The fact that we are a relatively tight community located in the middle of downtown Atlanta--ultra-urban and, by certain statistics, ultra-dangerous--poses special challenges, but it also offers potential benefits. "Nowhere else in a place like downtown Atlanta could you harness a community effort against crime as effectively as you could here," Chief Vickery believes.
The main threat to this community effort, and therefore the main threat to campus security, is complacency. "It is dangerous when people simply get used to crime," Vickery says in a worried tone.
"Every now and then very sad things happen," he continues. He refers to the cases which affect him the most: those of death by substance abuse. "It is so sad to see such a young life wasted, and for no reason, you know? For absolutely no reason."
"But in 17 years, definitely, there's been more good times than bad. This is the best job in the world--it's great to work with logical people," he concludes, and I can't help thinking that there must still be something left of the Jack Vickery who wanted to become a math teacher.
