AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas at Austin Police Department (UTPD) has a new chief.
UTPD swore in Eve Stephens at an on-campus ceremony Wednesday morning. Stephens will also serve as the university's assistant vice president of campus security.
According to UT, Stephens retired from the Austin Police Department (APD) in March after nearly 24 years of service. In her time at APD, she worked her way up from patrol officer in East Austin to serve as a detective in the department's Child Abuse, Internal Affairs and Financial Crimes units. She then served as sergeant over a team in South Central Patrol before moving to lead a unit in APD's Organized Crime Division.
In 2016, Stephens was handpicked by the then-chief of police to serve as staffing lieutenant. In 2019, she became APD's training academy lieutenant. In 2021, she was promoted to commander, leading sworn officers in the North Central Patrol Bureau. According to UT, she was one of two commanders who provided strategic and tactical leadership for APD SWAT team deployments.
A June report from The Daily Texan states that Stephens also created APD's first Women's Mentorship Program for female cadets and helped form a similar program at the state level for the Texas Police Chiefs Association.
"Every year, parents send their students to our university to learn and achieve their educational dreams. UT Austin prepares these students to change the world," Stephens said at Thursday's ceremony. "Families must feel confident knowing their students are in an environment in which we continuously assess and evolve our security approach to further protect our community. And we want our faculty, staff and visitors to feel the same way as well."
"I have a proven track record in law enforcement leadership," Stephens continued. "I know how to build and lead a team that instills confidence so that every person who steps into our jurisdiction knows their safety is our highest priority."
Stephens' appointment comes after former UTPD Chief David Carter died last spring after a long battle with cancer. Carter had served as assistant vice president for campus safety and the chief of police since 2018. He had been chief of police since 2013.
"During the course of a highly competitive national search, Chief Stephens emerged as the most compelling of candidates," said Michael J. Heidingsfield, police director for the UT System. "Her early aspirations to become a leading law enforcement officer are perfectly reflected in her professional and academic accomplishments to date. We are both pleased and proud to welcome Chief Stephens as a member of the University of Texas System Police, and I look forward to working with her."
Stephens graduated summa cum laude from Sam Houston State University with a B.A. in criminal justice and a minor in Spanish and later earned a Master of Public Safety from the University of Virginia. She is also a graduate of the FBI National Academy and is a certified mental health officer with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE).
At UT, she will lead more than 100 sworn officers to navigate the security needs of the university's campus community of nearly 75,000 students, faculty members, staffers and visitors.