University of Arizona's interim police chief promoted to lead the force

The University of Arizona has hired its new assistant vice president and chief of police.

Christopher Olson, who has been serving as interim police chief since May 2023, has been hired to lead the UA Police Department officially after an extensive national search, said Steven Patterson, UA’s interim vice president and chief safety officer.

Patterson wrote that Olson “has had a tremendous impact on the University of Arizona Police Department.”

During his first 10 weeks in the interim role, Olson “made structural changes at the UAPD, created a mental health team support officer position, planned a community academy and initiated steps to incorporate a Blue Envelope program to help officers communicate with individuals with autism spectrum disorders during a traffic stop,” Patterson wrote.

Olson has 31 years of law enforcement experience, including seven years as a member of the UAPD. Before that, he was commander of the Oro Valley Police Department’s Field Services Division. He has also worked as an adjunct instructor in the School of Government and Public Policy since 2017.

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The search advisory committee for police chief was chaired by Laureate Professor Richard Carmona (a retired Pima County sheriff’s deputy) and included Lehman Benson, the vice president of Black advancement and engagement at the UA; Monica Prieto, Tucson Police Department deputy chief; Jeri Williams, a retired Phoenix police chief; and Michael Thompson, the police chief at Arizona State University.

“The four law enforcement professionals on the committee had more than 130 years of combined law enforcement leadership experience, in addition to their academic credentials,” Patterson wrote.

Olson became interim police chief after former police chief Paula Balafas stepped down this spring after a vote of “no confidence” from the UA Faculty Senate. Many blamed Balafas for what they called lack of enforcement against a former student before Professor Thomas Meixner was shot and killed on campus in October 2022. Ex-student Murad Dervish, who had sent threatening communications to Meixner and others, is charged with murder in Meixner’s slaying.

Olson came under criticism by some faculty members earlier this fall when he was involved in the promotion of UAPD officer Colin Keating, who had dealt most closely with the Meixner case, from sergeant to lieutenant. UA officials declined to comment on those criticisms at the time of Keating’s promotion.