Schirin Rangnick

Updated Nov. 13, 2025, at 10:28 p.m.

Yale Police Chief Anthony Campbell ’95 DIV ’09 will leave the Yale Police Department to lead the Harvard University Police Department next semester, both universities announced on Thursday. 

Campbell began his career in law enforcement in 1998 at the New Haven Police Department, ultimately rising to chief of the department in 2016. He was sworn in as chief of Yale’s police department in 2022, after joining the department as assistant chief in 2019, according to Lovello’s email to the University. 

During his tenure, Campbell oversaw the arrests of dozens of students and other protesters participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment on Beinecke Plaza, including two forceful arrests of individuals not affiliated with Yale.

“To have the opportunity to serve at the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, Harvard University, as chief of police is truly a dream come true,” Campbell said in a statement in Harvard’s news release. The former Harvard University Police department chief, Victor Clay, resigned last May amid allegations of mismanagement of the department, according to reporting by the Harvard Crimson. 

According to Head of Public Safety Duane Lovello, who announced Campbell’s departure Thursday afternoon in an email to Yale community members, Campbell will continue leading the Yale Police Department until Jan. 2, 2026. Until Campbell’s successor is named, Lovello will oversee the department, he wrote in an announcement.

Campbell said in a phone interview Thursday evening that he had been approached by a recruitment firm that encouraged him to apply for the position at Harvard in August. He decided to leave Yale because he wanted to get out of his “comfort zone,” he said. In the interview, he also explained that he would get a “pay raise” at Harvard, though he would not specify how much. 

“This was definitely a punch in the gut,” Mike Hall, president of the Yale Police union, said in a phone interview Thursday afternoon. “The sentiment among the membership is totally, you know, this is Yale’s loss and Harvard’s gain.” 

According to Hall, the Yale Police union received word of Campbell’s departure on Thursday, though members had previously heard unconfirmed “rumblings” of his potential departure.

An “advance notice” email Lovello sent to the Yale Police union about Campbell’s departure obtained by the News said that Campbell had “accepted a new position outside of Yale University.” Yale Police union members received the email at 12:50 p.m. Thursday — about half an hour before the announcement was sent to the Yale community.

In the email to union members, Lovello wrote that the University expects “several members of the YPD command staff to take advantage of retirement incentives offered by the university.”

According to Hall, as part of the University’s new contract with the Yale police union, managerial and professional employees are eligible for retirement incentives. Hall anticipates that the YPD “will be losing many of its supervisors who are eligible for the program,” he wrote in a text message.

“This period of transformation will provide an opportunity to shape the future of public safety services at a diverse, world-class academic institution,” Lovello wrote. “Our partnership with the New Haven Police Department also provides space to explore new synergies and the best use of resources.”

In an email sent to Yale Police on Thursday — just minutes before the Yale community learned of his departure — Campbell wrote that it “has been a privilege, an honor, and a blessing to serve with you at America’s oldest campus police department.”

“This is a deeply bittersweet moment. Professionally, this is a tremendous opportunity for me to bring the skills, talents, and gifts that God has placed in me to another historic institution,” he wrote in the email.

Referring to Cambridge, Campbell wrote, “I don’t know the culture of its community in the same way that I know the culture and community here in New Haven.” He added that “there are so many things here that are just second nature that won’t be there.” 

In the phone interview, Campbell said that he met his wife at Yale, and all three of his children were born at Yale-New Haven Hospital.

“It’s the place where I learned, really, how to be a man who serves his community,” Campbell said. “So many relationships, so many things that have made me who I am are right here in New Haven.”

When asked who he will be cheering for at the Yale-Harvard football game this year, Campbell said, “Bulldogs all day long.” 

Campbell will begin his new role at Harvard on Jan. 5, 2026, according to the university’s announcement.  

Anayah Accilien contributed reporting.

Correction, Nov. 19: An earlier version of this article misstated the organization Yale recently established a new contract with. The University recently established a new contract with the Yale Police Benevolent Association, the police union, not the Yale Police Department.