UTPD History

Created by the State of Texas Legislature in the wake of the active shooter event of August 1, 1966, the University of Texas System Police charter was to ‘…employ and commission peace officers for the purpose of protecting life and property…’ at the campuses of the University of Texas System or wherever else UT interests or assets were represented or present. This decision was followed by the creation of the Office of the Director of Police and the University of Texas System Police Academy in 1968 and thus began the nearly 50 year legacy of which we are a part today.

Since that time 92 basic peace officer training classes have been successfully conducted by the Police Academy with almost 2,000 graduates since January of 1968. Today the University of Texas System Police deploys 626+ sworn police officers and 900+ civilian staff members across the State of Texas and at 13 institutions to fulfill that original mandate to protect life and property.  With over 626 sworn officers the UT System Police as an agency is larger than 95% of the 15,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. It is this new generation of police officers who are tasked with protecting one of the four largest public university systems in the United States and it is to them that this web site is dedicated.   

Michael Parks became the Executive Director of the UT System Office of the Director of Police in October 2024. Prior to that role, he served 14 years as Chief of Police at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. He previously acted as Director of Public Safety at Minnesota State University-Moorhead from 2007 to August 2010. Executive Director Parks holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Metropolitan State University and a master’s degree in leadership from Concordia University. Executive Director Parks is also a graduate of the Senior Management Institute for Police, a nationally recognized command college through the Police Executive Research Forum in Boston, the FBI Leadership Command College, and the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety Senior Management Leadership program. He is actively involved with the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), serving on the national accreditation board and as a IACLEA Peer Review Program member.