Dear colleagues,
After a distinguished career of more than 40 years in law enforcement, Adam Garcia, Vice President of Public Safety Services at UNLV and Director of University Police Services Southern Command (UPD), has announced his retirement.
Hired in 2019 to consolidate police services for UNLV, College of Southern Nevada, Desert Research Institute, and Nevada State University, Vice President Garcia has played an integral part in guiding our university through a particularly tumultuous period of its history.
From the uncertainty and distress of the COVID-19 pandemic to our worst fears realized on Dec. 6 at UNLV, Adam has led a dedicated team of officers and staff with professionalism and fortitude during both routine and trying times.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Adam was an active member of NSHE’s COVID-19 Task Force and worked closely with Clark County and the state to help UNLV and other system institutions navigate an evolving response to the pandemic. This included leading coordination and security for testing and vaccine stations at UNLV and its sister public higher education institutions that helped save thousands of lives. For his work, Adam was awarded the UNLV Top Tier Award in 2021, and the IMT Hero Award in 2022.
Under Adam’s leadership, UPD experienced a cultural shift from traditional policing to community-oriented policing, which is based on transparency, accountability, empathy, responsiveness, and engagement. Student safety, and the safety of all faculty and staff, was always at the forefront of his priorities and he never hesitated to share his cell phone or answer questions related to the concerns of anyone, no matter the time of day.
His leadership and the commitment of his staff were never more tested than during the Dec. 6, 2023 shooting that saw the loss of three of our faculty members and a fourth wounded, along with thousands of lives forever impacted.
During the days, weeks, and months that followed, Adam worked closely with the Metropolitan Police Department, FBI, and other law enforcement agencies regarding the investigation and post-incident assessment. This included hiring and deploying private security staff, identifying and recommending needed security upgrades, and chairing Chancellor Patricia Charlton’s Ad-Hoc Committee for Public Safety at the system level.
In all, Adam has spent 22 years leading law enforcement in the Nevada System of Higher Education. Before coming to Southern Nevada, he served as the Assistant Vice President and Director of University Police Services at the University of Nevada, Reno for 17 years, where he also oversaw the consolidation of police services at UNR and Truckee Meadows Community College in 2016.
Adam is the recipient of more than two dozen commendations, including several life-saving awards and recognition for instances where he successfully intervened with armed, barricaded suspects.
I want to reassure our campus community that the initiatives begun under Adam’s leadership – including the work of the Rebel Recovery Program – will continue. UPD will be led by an officer-in-charge, consistent with normal operating procedures, until an interim director has been chosen. The designated officer-in-charge of UPD Southern Command will be Assistant Director Arnold Vasquez.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to Vice President Garcia for his steadfast and dedicated service to our university and NSHE. His final day is today, July 12. His decision to leave comes after a personal assessment over the past year and the two-year anniversary of a family tragedy.
Please join me in wishing Adam Garcia well, and in thanking him for his impactful and lasting contributions to public safety at UNLV and throughout Nevada.
Warm Regards,
Keith E. Whitfield, Ph.D.
UNLV President