Filled with pride, Rambo heads up Penn's finest

With almost five months experience in the position under his belt, University Police Chief Tom Rambo commands what he calls "the finest university police department in the country."

Rambo, who has been with Penn since his graduation from La Salle University 15 years ago, sees collegiate law enforcement as his calling.

"It really was a career that I was developing in law enforcement," Rambo said, explaining part of the reason he applied for the promotion from his previous rank of lieutenant. "It really is an up and coming industry."

"What better place to work at than at Penn?" he added.

Rambo says he wants to make Penn's police department recognized nationally, specifically by college law enforcement across the nation.

"In five years, although I think we are the finest university police department in the country, it will be more widely known," Rambo said. "In this region we have a fine reputation [because] the men and women of the department work very hard."

While Rambo didn't predict he would one day wind up commanding a top collegiate police force, he knew a life in law enforcement was his true calling.

Rambo's father was a captain in the Philadelphia Police Department and Rambo knew from the time he entered college he wanted to be a police officer.

He decided to study criminal justice at La Salle, and when an opportunity opened up at Penn when he graduated, he took it.

For the first couple of years though, he was also a part-time police officer with the Jenkintown Borough Police Department.

But he opted to remain with Penn in part to develop his own niche.

"I wanted to stand out on my own, so to speak, instead of joining the same police department" as his father, Rambo said. The Philadelphia Police Department does "a lot for Penn and the entire city, but individually I wanted to make it on my own and not just because of my family relationships."

Rambo's boss, Vice President for Public Safety Maureen Rush, is confident Rambo has chosen the right profession and that he is the right man for the job.

"Tom brings to his job a wealth of information," said Rush, who held the position of police chief before her own promotion in May. "He's also learned how to integrate the whole Public Safety network."

As an example of what she called Rambo's "innovative" style, Rush pointed out that the Special Response Team initiative so vital to Penn Police's mission was started because of an idea Rambo had in 1996.

Rush had just been appointed police chief and Penn was experiencing a significant crime wave.

According to Rush, "he was in my office approximately three weeks and his idea was to start teams that would not answer radio calls" but would respond to crime directly through increased patrols and more relationships with security forces.

"He has become the leader in the technical field," Rush said. "He is a great captain and has true instincts."

Rush says she is very satisfied with her pick for Penn's number one police officer.

"In the short period time he's been chief, I'd give him an A-plus," Rush said.

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