Chief Delaney to retire in December

Pitt’s top police official will soon step down after more than 40 years with the University.

Chief Tim Delaney is no longer working and plans to retire from his position at the head of Pitt’s police department at the end of this year. Ken Service, a spokesman for Pitt, said in an email that Deputy Chief Jim Loftus, the former director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, is now overseeing Pitt police operations. Before joining the Pitt police, Loftus worked in Miami-Dade County’s police force for 29 years.

Service added that the University has not decided who the next chief will be.

Delaney, whose father was also a Pitt police officer, began as a security guard at Pitt in 1972. In 1974, he became a patrol officer for the University and has been chief since 2001.

Although Delaney will not officially retire until Dec. 31, Service said in an email that Delaney has saved enough paid leave days to take the rest of the year off.

That vacation has come hard-earned for Delaney, who has seen the University through several crises.

Dozens of Pitt students — many of them bystanders — were arrested when protests against the G20 Summit took place on campus in 2009. Delaney later recommended that the Allegheny County district attorney drop the charges against some of these students.

Delaney was also the head of the department in 2012 when John Shick walked into the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic with a handgun and opened fire, killing one victim and wounding seven others before Pitt police fatally shot him.

Delaney also led the department when Pitt’s campus buildings received more than 100 bomb threats during the 2012 spring semester. At the height of these bomb threats, dormitories and large classroom buildings were evacuated daily. Delaney coordinated the Emergency Notification System alerts that informed students of the threats.

“I would like it known how blessed I am to work for the Pitt community my entire career,” Delaney said in a prepared statement. “I am proud that I based my decisions as chief on the safety of the students.”

Although Loftus joined Pitt police at the beginning of this year, Service said that Delaney had not decided to retire at the time.

In addition to serving as director of the Miami-Dade County police, Loftus also served as head of the department’s Criminal Investigations Division and its Major Crimes Unit, according to Service.

He also worked on the National Football League commissioner’s security detail during the 1995 Super Bowl, according to Service. Loftus also coordinated logistics at the site of the 1996 ValuJet Flight 592 crash in the Everglades outside of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Loftus will officially become interim chief of the department Jan. 1, Service said.