Reporter Volume 25, No.26 April 28, 1994

By ANN WHITCHER
Reporter Editor

Retiring from a long UB career in August, Director of Public Safety
Lee Griffin takes with him a deep love for the campus and a
plain-speaking love of the truth.
	"Speaking my mind has cost me opportunities over the years,"
says Griffin, 54. "Taking a firm position, and not being more
concerned with process than product, does not always enhance one's
position within an organization. I can, however, get up in the morning
and look in the mirror and like what I see. I leave here with great
pride. It's been a great experience." 
	Director of the university's 53-member police force since
1977, Griffin joined the force in 1971 as assistant director after
nearly 10 years as a New York State trooper. He came to UB at a time
when the university was still reeling from anti-war riots and the
accompanying social upheaval. 
	After earning his associate's degree from what is now Erie
County Community College, Griffin studied nights at Buffalo State
College for his B.S. in police science, while holding down a full-time
job and serving as a single parent to two young daughters. "I really
didn't see college life, other than maybe a quick drink in the student
club with fellow students in law enforcement. I didn't think serious
crime happened on campuses. I didn't think they needed arms at that
point." 
	Arriving on UB campus in the early '70s, Griffin saw drug
dealing, weapons in the student union and a general lack of confidence
in campus security as an effective protector of its citizens. What
followed, he said, was a gradual establishment of order and a
sensitive protection extended to the community, which Griffin says is
the office's hallmark today.
	"It's hard to point out one single thing that you're most
proud of after the period of time I've been here. But I would say that
very few law enforcement agencies can say they've had a 23-year period
without an allegation of police brutality. We expect everyone in our
organization to treat the public as if they were members of their
family, with courtesy and dignity." 
	Despite what Griffin terms a "struggle" on the part of SUNY
Public Safety directors to obtain the status, equipment and tools they
need, "the people (in Public Safety) have performed without those
tools, to deliver a quality product to our community." 
	Feedback from those who have left Public Safety for careers
elsewhere in law enforcement, indicates that "the bond, the
camaraderie here doesn't exist at other law enforcement agencies. We
put a lot of emphasis on training. We have always tried to teach our
people state-of-the art management techniques. New York is a highly
unionized environment. But despite that, we've learned to work well
together. We respect one another and work within the constraints of
the contract."
	He continues: "The thrill of working here is the diversity of
its people and the ability to walk around now and then and look at
some of the mind-boggling research and the nice faculty who will take
time to explain what they're doing. At the same time, people doing
this research and writing, are themselves a little bit unaware of
what's going on about them on a 24-hour basis. 
	"After all, their energy is totally challenged into their
life's work. And sometimes it's difficult for them to see what we're
confronted with at 2 o'clock in the morning, and the problems of the
24-hour population of the students in the dorms. There is always a
misperception of what occurs here and the kinds of things we do. Now
that we're embarked on community policing and problem-oriented
policing, we're getting nothing but positive feedback from the
community." 
	Griffin recalls some of the students he's known over the
years. "I particularly remember the early years when there was lot of
strife, the effects of the riots were still being felt. Society was
going though a lot of change. SDS, the U.S. Labor Labor Party were at
our university. I look back with respect, quite frankly, at some of
the leaders of those groups, even though I may have disagreed with
their practices and techniques. 
	"At least it wasn't the apathy that you see in society today.
People took positions and they spoke their minds. Society needs people
challenging the status quo whether it be in law enforcement or in any
other field."
	Asked to enumerate some of the capers solved in a long career,
Griffin recalls the theft of a Stradivarius violin in the 1970s. A
visiting member of the Cleveland String Quartet had left his $50,000
instrument in the back seat of his car parked in University Plaza.
	"One of the students who worked for us, whose dad ran a
downtown pawnshop, heard us taking the report. We knew whoever stole
it didn't know they had a Stradivarius. The student called downtown to
his dad's pawnshop, and his father said, 'Yep, someone just came in
and pawned it." We got it back for the $15 it had been pawned for."
	Other capers in the "solved" column include a 1970s student
loan scam and the 1980s theft of 600 pairs of women's underwear as a
pledge requirement for a campus fraternity. 
	Sometimes, Griffin points out, even law enforcement officials
have difficulty in sorting out the differences between crime and
prank. For instance, some electrical engineering students recently
rigged the elevators in their building so that an elevator would come
to their floor immediately, upon request, bypassing other requests.
This was deemed not a crime because of the absence of injury, physical
damage, or financial loss. "Had they damaged the circuitry or
endangered somebody, it would have been a crime," Griffin says.	And he
can recall achievements in solving serious crime: the substantial role
the agency had in solving a series of rapes in the University Heights
district, for instance.
	But, says Griffin, the greatest pleasure lies in the rewards
of trust and affection from many of the students he and fellow
officers have served. 
	"I'll never forget a young woman RA from Long Island about 20
going on 40, who said to me, 'You know we really appreciate your
officers in the dormitories at night. They're the only adult figures
who are here.'
	"When students are depressed or down or drinking too much or
it becomes obvious to the officer that there's something wrong,
they're sitting up all night and not sleeping, they talk with them and
channel them into some kind of help. Oftentimes, it's only during
those times of the day that those things become obvious, because
they're able to hide the dilemma and feelings in the day. 	"That
kind of caring and sensitivity is inculcated into the department and
that's what makes us different from a traditional law enforcement
agency."
	Retirement plans include golf, breeding rare fish, expert
witness work in lawsuits concerning crimes on campus, attendance at
jazz and other cultural events, and a book for parents of
college-bound students. Widowed in 1992, Griffin is the father of
Kelly Ann, a UB grad, Nol Fotus of Niagara Falls, and Lee Jr., a
Channel 2 cameraman.  
	The founding president of the SUNY Public Safety Directors
Association, Griffin is past president of the International
Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. He currently
serves on the Erie County Traffic Advisory Board's Stop DWI
subcommittee.