Chief Chris Jenkins started as a police officer at Kent State University in 1995. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2006. He was assigned to the Investigations Section in 2009 before being promoted to administrative roles in 2019. He was an agency firearms and active threat instructor until serving in his administrative roles. His recent passions have been on agency succession planning, staff development, and continuing to progress a community policing philosophy within his community. He was appointed Interim Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police on May 1st, 2024.
Chief Jenkins received an associate of applied science degree in criminal justice from the University of Akron in 1994. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminal justice from Kent State University in 2003. He attended the 226th session of the FBI National Academy, where he earned a graduate certificate from the University of Virginia in 2006. He received a master’s degree in public administration from Kent State University in 2012. He attended the Great Lakes Leadership Seminar, session twenty, in 2017.
Chief Jenkins is a member of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the Portage County Chiefs’ Association, and the State University Law Enforcement Association (SULEA). He is a member of the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Association (LEEDA) and the FBI National Academy Associates.
Chief Jenkins is active in a number of university community committees including the Portage County NAACP, Portage County Safe Communities and the Town & Gown community safety committee. He has served on the university’s CARE team (behavioral intervention team) since 2009. Chris recently received the 2024 Heather E. Adams Impact Award given jointly by the Kent State University Women’s Center and the Center for Sexual and Relationship Violence Support Services.