Former Miami Police officer Luis Miguel Perez started as the new public safety chief at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus on Oct. 17.
Perez, 53, earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Thomas University. He later served in the United States Marine Corps as a sergeant for four years.
“I wanted to share my knowledge from working with the city’s police department and bring it to Miami Dade College’s public safety,” Perez said. “I retired two years earlier than my scheduled drop date from the Police Department because I wanted to expand into something new.”
The hiring process involved Amaury Zuriarrain, Assistant to the College President; Miguel Montanez, Wolfson Campus Mathematics Chairperson; Glorida De Los Reyes, Wolfson Campus Assistant Dean of Student Affairs; and Carlos Alvarez, Assistant Chief of Public Safety at Wolfson Campus.
“Since he was such a high-ranking police officer, we knew that he would be able to offer a lot to our public safety department,” Alvarez said.
He worked for the City of Miami Police Department and within the span of 32 years served as a patrol officer, robbery investigator, SWAT commander, commander of internal affairs and commander of crime scene investigations.
Perez’ duties as chief include recruiting, training, evaluating staff and maintaining an effective campus security program to safeguard the physical facility, students, faculty, staff and visitors.
“Even though the crime rate at Wolfson is much lower than expected, the reason is because of how visible we are as a department,”Alvarez said. “He will do great.”
