Washington State University is set to welcome a new police chief this week. Assistant Police Chief Dawn Daniels will be officially sworn in as chief during a public ceremony on Friday afternoon at 2:00 PM inside the Holland Library Atrium. Daniels has been part of the university’s police department since 1998 and was promoted to assistant chief in 2022.

She will succeed Gary Jenkins, who is retiring from his position as WSU Police Chief. Jenkins previously served as Pullman Police Chief before returning to law enforcement in 2022, following the abrupt retirement of the WSU Police command staff due to a scandal involving misconduct within the department.

In conjunction with Daniels’ appointment, a captain from the Augusta University Police Department in Georgia, Harry Smith, will be sworn in as WSU PD Assistant Chief on Friday. Smith has prior experience with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office in Portland.

Jenkins, who announced his retirement last October along with Daniels’ appointment as the new chief, was originally scheduled to retire in June.