Police chief to retire after 40 years at Richmond

Robert C. Dillard decided during his first job as a draftsman — sitting at a drawing table doing building plans eight hours per day — that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life cooped up inside.

"I wanted a job where I'd be outside and working with people," he said. "That's what led me to police work."

Dillard is completing his 40th year as the University of Richmond's chief of police, and working with people is still his favorite thing about his job.

It's also the thing he will miss the most, he said. Dillard will retire on June 30, 2010 — the end of a career of achievements and success.

"Dillard will leave a legacy of accomplishments at the university that will be hard to match," said Hossein Sadid, vice president of business and finance.

Dillard, a Richmond, Va., native and Virginia Commonwealth University graduate, came to the University of Richmond in 1970 after five years as a Henrico County police officer.

In 1970, the university didn't have a police department, Dillard said, only five security officers and some additional contract security officers.

"When I first came here, the security officers had no training," Dillard said. "They didn't even have a telephone. They had no form of communication, no records, no reporting systems and each one of them wore a different kind of uniform. They had one car that was hand-painted with a brush. They didn't even have an office."

Dillard, who was 26 at the time, applied to be the chief of security. But, he soon determined that there was a need for a police department instead of just security, he said.

"It was obvious that in order to be able to hire the kind of people we needed to hire, to retain them and train them, we had to go to the police model," he said. "We could not provide all the service that the students and university required if we stayed security."

The change from security to police was something happening at other Virginia universities at about the same time, Dillard said.

Dillard helped the university transition to a police force within his first year, and he became the chief of police.

"To start from absolutely nothing and create a police department was a tremendous challenge," Dillard said. "I thoroughly enjoyed it."

In 1990, under Dillard's leadership, Richmond became the first private university in the nation to be nationally accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies.

In order to become accredited, Richmond had to comply with a list of about 700 standards applicable to police departments, Dillard said.

"It required us to make an awful lot of changes, become more professional and write a directors' manual to cover every area of law enforcement," he said. "That was a lot of hard work, but quite an accomplishment."

To maintain the accreditation, the department has to pass a three-and-a-half-day inspection every three years by a team of police chiefs who make sure the department is complying with all the standards, Dillard said. The university's police department is the longest-standing accredited campus agency, Dillard said.

"I'm very lucky I've got long-term staff," Dillard said. "They know their jobs, they're good at their jobs and it really makes my life easy. We operate a pretty good department."

"Richmond's police department has received awards such as the Governor's Community Crime Prevention Award and the Secret Service Certificate of Recognition. Last year, the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators instituted the Robert C. Dillard award, which is given annually to a campus police or security officer in Virginia who has shown leadership and excellence, said Howard "Buddy" Norton, captain of police and security operations.

"[Dillard] transformed ... the University of Richmond into one of the safest campuses," Norton said.

In Dillard's years on campus, he has seen a lot of big changes, he said. He has watched the student body change from mostly in-state students to mostly out-of-state students, and he has watched buildings on campus expand and be constructed.

"Academically I watched the university go from a good institution to an excellent institution," he said.

In addition to his police work, Dillard works closely with the Office of Student Development, collaborating on policies, student discipline issues and student events, he said.

Dillard doesn't hesitate to get involved wherever he is needed, said Steve Bisese, vice president for Student Development.

"[Dillard] takes the lead at this university when big projects come up," Bisese said.

In 1983, when Richmond took control of UR Stadium and had only a few months to get everything done, Dillard stepped up to complete assignments such as purchasing the UR Stadium sign for the back of the bleachers and having the sound system installed.

"I know nothing about sound systems," Dillard said with a laugh.

Now, Dillard has taken a lead in helping the university understand what it will be like to have a football stadium on campus, Bisese said.

Bisese recounted how Dillard helped him during his first job as an area coordinator and helped him stage experiments for his dissertation on campus crime.

"[Dillard] has always been willing to step up and be helpful, even if it means more work," Bisese said. "He is a very special guy that has been very important to me over the years."

Sadid wrote in an email: "[Dillard] has developed an exemplary police department that is university-centric, embodying values of hard work, integrity, professionalism and respect. He should be extremely proud of his department and the men and women who make it work so well."

Dillard summed up his career at Richmond in this way: "I have been extremely lucky. I could not find a better place to work."

Contact staff writer Anna Kuta at anna.kuta@richmond.edu.

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