The University of Florida Police Department swore in Bart Knowles as its new chief at the campus public safety building on Monday.
Knowles had served as interim chief since June 2024 when Linda Stump-Kurnick transitioned to assistant Vice President of Public Safety after 21 years as chief.
Department officers, personnel and Knowles’ family members gathered to witness the swearing-in as UF interim president Kent Fuchs administered Knowles’ oath of office.
“Safety is critical to everything that we do and that we represent,” Fuchs said. “It is necessary as a foundation for our students, faculty and all our employees so that indeed we can study, we can learn, we can do research and we can grow as individuals.”
Knowles credited Stump-Kurnick’s tenure as chief for setting a high bar of excellence for the department. He said that in a position at the top of the organization, he wouldn’t want to be responsible for anything other than excellence, which starts with having the right team.
The department has already been collaborating with human resources to set goals for their primary task of recruiting, which Knowles said will be done in order to help UF excel in education now and through the foreseeable presidential transition.
“It’s not about the individual, it is a team effort,” Knowles said. “When I say team, it’s huge internally here at the university organization at UFPD. I know that they buy into that and it’s going to allow us to continue to move forward and pick up where Linda left us and definitely take us to the next level.”
Knowles also said other priorities will be continuing to secure campus events such as football that bring large numbers of visitors to campus.
Gainesville Police Chief Nelson Moya said he is very excited about collaborating his department with Knowles’ leadership in areas where the city and university overlap, such as with off-campus housing.
“Our priority is reducing gun-related violence,” Moya said. “That can bleed into a campus because gun violence sometimes has no ground that remains. Whereas, conversely, I’ll give you an example, like a party just outside of campus, that’s a big one that leads into our world to navigate.”
Knowles held back tears thanking his family, including his wife Jacqui and son Kale, who is a senior at UF, for being at the ceremony and supporting his career to become chief. He said that growing up in Gainesville his mom provided the best environment for him and his siblings at home while his dad—who recently retired from law enforcement—inspired him to go into the field himself.
Knowles started his career in 1988 in Hernando County as a sheriff’s deputy. He transferred to the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) in 1991 where he worked in the uniform patrol, special operations, narcotics/vice, human resources, DEA task force, the state attorney’s task force, SWAT and rifle team commander. Knowles retired from GPD and joined UFPD in 2010.
After receiving the oath, Knowles invited UFPD Chaplain and military veteran Bishop Christopher Stokes to issue a prayer. He said as someone who is embedded in the university, Stokes helped Stump-Kurnick and himself see different perspectives and unite more people on certain issues, and that he will continue to seek Stokes’ guidance to do so moving forward.
“We’re grateful for the time in which we live and as we come to install our new chief,” Stokes prayed. “We also understand that a leader is only as good as his followers, and so we ask that you would bless his team, those of us that surround him, those of us who follow him, we ask that you continue to lead this department to higher heights. That you continue to grant us with your grace and grant us with your mercy.”
