Photo courtesy of USF Tampa University Police Department
By Jasmin Parrado
After over two decades of protecting the USF St. Petersburg community, Sgt. Jonathan Dye has retired from his position at the University Police Department (UPD).
As one of the department’s longstanding members, he cemented a legacy of contributions to campus safety. Colleagues remember his impact on the campus environment as an instructor to both police trainees and students.
“No matter the need, Jonathan was always there to lend a hand,” Tampa campus’ UPD said in an Instagram post on Feb. 24 announcing Dye’s retirement. “He will be sorely missed, but we are incredibly grateful for his service.”
Since 1996, Dye had been familiar with St. Petersburg’s UPD as an interdisciplinary studies major and lifeguard. He later joined the UPD as a police aid and dispatcher, but his ultimate position as a police officer became the most prominent within the community.
Dye witnessed the institutional shift in law enforcement following national events such as the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 and the surge of ricin-filled letters that infiltrated USF’s own departments.
“A lot of our protocols changed, but it also universally created a lot more professionalism in law enforcement because it was the start of our war on terror and some of the threats that we had domestically,” Dye said. “That was an interesting paradigm shift in what we did for a living at that time.”
Additionally, Dye witnessed changes to the USF St. Petersburg campus that implied more law enforcement responsibilities than before. With the introduction of residence halls in 2006, St. Petersburg’s UPD had to consider domestic issues and bolster its staff presence.
“We had residents… so that completely changed our jobs as police officers,” Dye said. “We had to change our way of thinking.”
In light of those changes, Dye was constantly considered an avid proponent of campus safety throughout his tenure at USF St. Petersburg. Over the years, he responded to various incident reports, ranging from bike thefts and fights in the RHO dorms to the presence of trespassers and armed assailants on nearby streets.
Once, he helped apprehend a suspect who had attempted to fight Ofc. Mark Lickenfelt under the influence of drugs.
“Jonathan was right there,” Lickenfelt said. “He backed me up and helped me out.”
Dye’s instructorship was a key factor in the UPD’s programs. He taught new officers how to handle firearms and less lethal weapons, such as tasers. He also oversaw most of the department’s staff and guided members in operations and dispatches.
His initiative to aid others was highly valued in law enforcement, Lickenfelt recalls.
“[Dye] was always very humble and willing to help you anytime you needed it,” Lickenfelt said. “He took the time out of his day just to give you a hand, with a smile on his face. He was never angry, never disappointed.”
Dye also instructed the student body, mostly after the noticeable lack of active shooter awareness programs on campus. Hearing about the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 gave him the final push to return to St. Petersburg’s UPD, only briefly after his departure for a deputy position at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office the year before.
“I discovered that that wasn’t really going as well as I had hoped when I left, and I felt like I needed to come back and I needed to finish where there was work undone,” Dye said. “So, I did. I came back to fulfill what felt like my moral obligation to the university.”
Dye worked with St. Petersburg’s UPD to make those changes. The department implemented the Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE), which Dye taught at different venues on campus.
Along with students, faculty and UPD staff, he conducted training simulations that helped RA groups, students and the especially vulnerable library faculty prepare for active shooter threats.
“He’s the one who actually stood up in front and educated the campus community about how to respond in the unlikely event we would see an active shooter incident,” said David Hendry, police chief of St. Petersburg’s UPD. “He was pretty integral.”
In the CRASE course, Dye familiarized students with the “Avoid, Deny, Defend” procedure developed by Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) in 2004. He also spread awareness about behaviors on social media and in person that can indicate the intent to harm or incite violence.
Hendry believes Dye’s retirement is well deserved for his position.
“When you have a law enforcement officer that is able to work their entire career 25 years and they’re able to retire and be with family, it’s an important milestone to achieve,” Hendry said. “We’re happy that he’s able to retire and be with his family. We’ll miss him tremendously.”
