New USU Public Safety Executive Director Michael Kuehn Outlines His Goals for Department

Utah State University recently hired Michael Kuehn as the executive director of USU Public Safety to help strengthen leadership and oversight in the Department of Public Safety.

In this position, he will oversee the police chief, the director of emergency management and the fire marshal. He hopes to proceed with a collaborative and transparent approach.

Kuehn served as the police chief and executive director for USU Public Safety from February 2017 to April 2019. Before his time at the university, Kuehn served for 25 years in the Utah Department of Public Safety.

Kuehn worked in several divisions and positions within the department, including deputy commissioner of Public Safety and in nearly all levels with the Utah Highway Patrol, as a trooper, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and major.

He also served as deputy director over the state’s Emergency Management division and as deputy commander over the Peace Officer Standards and Training division. He started his career in 1988 as a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Kuehn will build upon the work done to enhance campus safety over the last few years, including implementing a university systemwide campus safety app and alert system in October 2019, creating an investigator/advocate team to respond to sex crimes and relationship violence in June 2020 (this team was originally funded by a grant secured by the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information office), opening a new security center in the Taggart Student Center in October 2020, and the accreditation of the university police department in September 2021.