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New USF Police Chief Brings Experience, Controversy

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 15, 2008

Updated: 01/15/2008 12:12 am

TAMPA - In hiring a police leader to bring together a disparate and understaffed campus emergency team, the University of South Florida looked to a veteran chief from Michigan who has organized everything from community policing to riot response.

He also drew his share of controversy.

Bruce Benson, USF's newly appointed leader of public safety, once sent an undercover officer to infiltrate a student activist group at Michigan State University, where he served as police chief for 15 years.

Benson's decision in 2000 to covertly follow an arson suspect into Students for Economic Justice met with resounding criticism from students and faculty at Michigan State, and eventually led to an independent investigation into campus police tactics.

In an interview last week, Benson, now 60, defended the move, noting that campus police also worried that the group would violently disrupt a visit from the World Bank president during Michigan State's 2000 commencement.

The independent panel, however, concluded that undercover surveillance of a student group should happen only "in extraordinary circumstances." Michigan State police handled the investigation as if it were a normal occurrence, the panel concluded.

Benson, who began his new job Monday on an interim basis, disagreed with the finding. "That was one of the most extraordinary circumstances you can have," he said. "An academic building was blown up, causing hundreds and thousands of dollars in damage. It doesn't get any more extraordinary than that."

On Dec. 31, 1999, an arsonist attacked the offices of Michigan State's Agricultural Biotechnology Support Project, which brought genetic engineering to developing countries. A radical environmental group, the Earth Liberation Front, later claimed responsibility for the fire, which caused $900,000 in damage.
Project researchers were rattled and moved their temporary offices to a secret location. Benson said that police later thought a suspect, who wasn't a student, attended meetings of the Students for Economic Justice.

Yet Benson's reasons for infiltrating the student group came to light only after the police department presented a different explanation for the undercover operation: Officials first said they feared protesters would stage violent demonstrations against a campus visit from James Wolfensohn, then president of the World Bank.

Benson said a federal grand jury was investigating the arson then, and he didn't want to compromise the probe by talking about it, even after his undercover operation surfaced publicly and campus emotions roiled.

His belated response only stoked passions further, particularly after Benson admitted police destroyed notes from the investigation. He said they served no purpose anymore, and the undercover officer went back to uniformed patrol after attending about six of the student activist group's meetings.

An Opening At USF

Benson retired in 2002, becoming an associate professor of criminal justice at Michigan State. For the past year, he has been a visiting instructor of criminology at USF's campus in Sarasota.

Carl Carlucci, USF's chief financial officer, who has oversight of emergency needs at the university, approached Benson recently about taking the new job of interim public safety director, which would bring together police, fire, emergency and parking enforcement together in a way never done at USF.

An independent consultant suggested in December that USF hire an executive to build and coordinate such a security model, which he said would "take a holistic view of safety and security at USF." Benson will earn $120,000 his first year to do that.

Administrators were drawn to Benson because he built a successful community policing program at Michigan State, which USF wants to emulate, Carlucci said.

"He's also seen things we've never seen," Carlucci said, referring to a series of student riots at Michigan State during the 1998-99 school year. The largest happened after Michigan State University's loss to Duke University in the NCAA Final Four men's basketball tournament. Up to 10,000 people ran through the Michigan State campus setting fires and overturning cars before police dispersed them with tear gas. Police charged 132 people, 71 of them students.

Carlucci said he didn't know that Benson approved an infiltration of a student activist group. Had he known, he said, "I would have talked to him about it."

Benson, however, had the resume USF was looking for, and Carlucci said the Michigan State controversy seven years ago doesn't change his decision about hiring him.

"I needed someone with a wide breadth of experience," Carlucci said, noting that Benson's 15 years as Michigan State police chief is an unusually long tenure for such a position.

Benson will serve as USF's interim assistant vice president for public safety for a year. USF will conduct a national search for a permanent replacement before then, though Benson said he may consider the job at the end of his appointment.

"This just seems like an area where I could make a difference," Benson said. "I think some of the issues are suited for me, and I'm suited for them at this particular time."

Many Officers Have Left

Students, faculty and police officers have berated USF administrators for the past several months for failing to raise the salaries of officers, many of whom have left for higher-paying jobs at neighboring police departments. Salary negotiations between the university administration and police union are at an impasse.

The independent consultant who reviewed the university's security needs urged USF to hire more officers, build a state-of-the-art public safety headquarters and equip its officers with Tasers, among other recommendations.

Benson said he will review the consultant's report immediately.

Benson began his career as a patrol officer in Flint, Mich., where he established, then commanded, the city's community policing program. He rose to deputy chief of Flint police before accepting the chief's position at Michigan State.

He said he wouldn't have conducted the undercover operation at Michigan State differently. Although the independent panel that investigated Benson's tactics at Michigan State concluded such undercover surveillance needed approval from the university's president, Benson said he had the president's blessing.

He said he wishes he could have talked more openly about the reasons for the investigation. The 1999 arson at the Michigan State research center, however, remains unsolved.

"I'm convinced we know exactly who did it," Benson said. "We were extremely close to making that case."

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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