CULLMAN — Wallace State Community College has hired former Cullman County sheriff Tyler Roden to a newly-created position as its Director of Campus Safety and Security.

Roden returns to law enforcement in Cullman after a year-long stint in Afghanistan, where he worked in a contracted position assisting the 10th Mountain Division of the U.S. Army in battlefield enforcement and detainment protocol at the Forward Operating Base (FOB) near Howz-e Madad village.

Sid Borden, director of auxiliary services at Wallace State, said Roden brings his training and experience to a position that will help the college’s long-evolving program of security services take a big step forward.

“We have really been working on enhancing campus security,” said Borden. “Back in 2004, we began with a couple of campus security guard positions. Then we went into an agreement, in 2008, with the Cullman County sheriff’s office to provide some patrol deputies that give us a 24/7 security presence on campus. As an experienced law enforcement person, Tyler is very capable of assessing our situation now, and to see how things may need to be structured in the future.”

Roden, who as sheriff helped arrange the department’s present agreement with Wallace State in 2008, said he’s happy to be working in a position that must coordinate the efforts of campus staff with deputies assigned to patrol the campus.

“We’re not starting from scratch here,” Roden said. “There are a lot of things in place here already that provide a good foundation for campus security. The sheriff’s patrols — that was something Dr. Hawsey and I worked on back when I was in office, and I look forward to working with the deputies on patrol here. Dr. Hawsey had wanted to have officers on campus 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and really, it was the goal — prior to us having the agreement that’s in place now — for Wallace State to establish its own campus police, where it could have certified officers, just as most college campuses in the state have.”

There’s no hard timeline for when that might happen, and Roden has only just begun his new job. But Borden said Roden’s experience and training will only benefit the shape any future improvements or expansions in campus security might take.

“This is a new position for Wallace State Community College. Really, for the first time, we will have a person who will solely be concentrating on security issues,” said Borden. “We feel like Tyler is a very uniquely qualified individual, with the education, training and experience to fill this type of position. He’s kind of a unique package, really — he’s got a master’s degree, he’s very well trained and has 20-plus years’ experience in law enforcement.”

Borden and college president Vicki Hawsey both said Wallace State’s ongoing relationship with the sheriff’s office has been a productive one that won’t be obviated by the creation of a new staff position.

“Given the growth of our campus and student body, we have always desired to have our safety and security services in-house, and it has taken on increasing importance in recent years,” said Hawsey. “We have a great relationship with both the Cullman County sheriff’s department and the Hanceville city police, and our efforts to establish an internal division will rely on continuing these relationships.”

Roden, who returned to Cullman a year after leaving for Afghanistan in April 2011, described his work overseas as a “terrific experience,” one that placed him alongside other seasoned law enforcement professionals in an effort to train soldiers in enforcement protocol.

“I worked for a company called Military Professional Resources, Inc. — MPRI — a defense contractor,” he said. “They hired mostly retired law enforcement professionals, and the position I held was a Law Enforcement Professional — they called us ‘LEPs.’ Basically, the job of a LEP is to train, mentor and advise coalition forces — U.S. and Afghan forces — on detainee operations.

“Much of what the soldiers do in the battlefield is a police mission. Even though it’s a war zone, if you capture someone you believe is an insurgent and feel that they should be detained, you have to have evidence. The case file, so to speak, has to justify that individual’s detainment. It was our job to help the soldiers take the evidence they gathered from the battlefield and put it all together. It was really a terrific experience.”



* Benjamin Bullard can be reached by e-mail at bbullard@cullmantimes.com or by telephone at 734-2131 ext. 270.