Retiring Isaacson lauds time at SUNY
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The outgoing chief of police at SUNY Fredonia said he will recall his time at the university with pride and affection.
Brent Isaacson is retiring June 30. He came to the university in 2019 after more than two decades in the FBI.
During a recent interview in his campus office, Isaacson said, "I think we all know when it's time. I've had a pretty long career at this point and I've really enjoyed it here, but I think just generally, I have my health and family, and I want to enjoy that with the good years I have left."
He said his "expertise coming into this role from the FBI was a little unique, and I think I was well prepared for this job. Much of my work in the FBI was in violence prevention. In K through 12 schools, in universities, I was very heavily involved with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit."
Isaacson continued, "I spent a lot of my time at Fredonia teaching literally hundreds of our campus community members how to recognize those telltale signals, the behaviors that people display if they're going down what we call a pathway of violence."
Research shows that in nearly every case of mass violence, there was somebody concerned about the killer's behavior beforehand -- but they ignored it or talked themselves out of saying something, Isaacson said.
"I hope I left the campus, and I think I have, better informed, better trained. If there's a legacy in these kind of jobs, I hope that's a legacy I've left," he said.
"My hope has been to create a culture of upstanders instead of bystanders. … If every school across the country did what we're doing here in Fredonia, my view is we'd catch over half of these (mass violence) cases before they come to completion."
In the fall semester, a student made a threat of bringing a gun to Thompson Hall. "Our response to it was appropriate, understanding that in the world of threat assessments, there's two things we think about -- is the threat credible and what's the imminence of it," Isaccson said. "The way we addressed that case was to quickly identify the person who issued the threats online. Great credit to our students bringing that to our attention. Over the span of a few hours, we were able to identify and speak to that person and ultimately charge with a crime." The student was also banned from campus.
Chief Isaacson praised campus administrators, calling them "absolutely wonderful to work with and for. They've been incredibly supportive. I'm saying that as I'm leaving. I don't have a dog in the fight to sing their praises. But I am singing their praises.
"Whenever I asked for something that would improve campus safety, the answer was yes. Regardless of whether it was expensive. I did ask for a few expensive things. We got a brand new radio system so we could speak with our (law enforcement) counterparts off campus… We've gotten much better coverage of our camera system across campus. Our officers have new body armor new body cameras."
Asked his opinion of SUNY Fredonia's students, he replied, "They are wonderful. I'll miss them. I've had a lot of students in this office, they're all unique. They all add something."
However, he lamented, "Compared to when I was a college kid, I think a lot of students are coming in with more mental health issues and concerns than we've seen in past years, so I do worry about that. That's not just a Fredonia problem. That's a national problem."