Unanswered questions: Collins resigns after first year

Just a few weeks ago, the ETSU community was surprised to hear that our first female police chief, Nicole Collins, has chosen to resign after about fourteen months of service at ETSU.

What we know for certain about her reason for leaving is from her official resignation letter, an email sent to ETSU Chief Operating Officer Jeremy Ross. Because so few details about this situation have been released, it is difficult to form a solid opinion on it.

Her statement said this: “… the institution is no longer interested in pursuing national and international accreditation and a cultural imbalance within the department.”

Police Chief Collins wanted ETSU’s Department of Public Safety to receive higher accreditation, likely from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), an accrediting body of whom Collins is a member, according to the university’s 2018 announcement of her hiring.

CALEA accreditation has already been obtained by three state universities: UT at Knoxville, MTSU and Vanderbilt University. Although we can understand why Collins wants ETSU to receive such a recognized accreditation, it is difficult to understand why Collins would decide to leave the university so soon over it. Not only is the university is not obligated to acquire accreditation, but it is already accredited by the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police. Furthermore, CALEA accreditation would cost the university financially.

Of more intrigue, though, is her statement mentioning “cultural imbalance.” Collins said that “the university is no longer interested in pursuing … cultural imbalance within the department.” Although this statement may appear misleading, I think it is safe to assume she meant “cultural balance,” a mere typographical error. In that case, lack of interest in pursuing a diverse police force is the other of Collins’ stated reasons for leaving.

Is this a valid concern? Is there a need to pursue cultural or ethnic diversity within the police force? If one were to argue the force should be diverse to reflect the community, we would have to remember that we live in a predominately white region to begin with, but more importantly, the criteria for positions within the police force (or anywhere else for that matter) should be the qualifications for and effectiveness in that role, not their skin color or background.

There is nothing wrong with the department being culturally uniform if they are doing their jobs properly, and that is how we should make judgments about people or bodies. Martin Luther King expressed this general sentiment when he famously asserted, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

All this being said, however, we still know very little about the details Collins is referring to. We don’t know if Collins came in with reason to believe the department would pursue CALEA accreditation, and we don’t know whether the department simply didn’t want to pursue diversity, or if Collins felt there may be a personal case of racism. We also need to consider that we are only hearing one side of the story, and we have heard very little even from that one side. We have many questions that have yet to be answered.

Until then, let’s stay tuned in to the situation for more information to arise.