Wendell Flinchum

Wendell Flinchum is chief of the Virginia Tech Police department, a nationally accredited law enforcement organization. He is a native of Blacksburg and has spent his entire career with the Virginia Tech police beginning part-time in 1983 while a student at Virginia Tech. He has worked as a safety escort, a dispatcher, a patrol officer and a detective. He joined the department full time in 1985. He also trained at the FBI National Academy. Flinchum was named chief over 90 candidates.
Flinchum and the Virginia Tech Police were tested when William Charles Morva escaped police custody on August 20, 2006 and was rumored to be on the Virginia Tech Campus. On April 16, 2007, only a few months later, Flinchum's department gained attention following the Virginia Tech massacre.
Flinchum was criticized for not immediately canceling classes and warning students more quickly about the shooting deaths. The Virginia Tech Police treated the first 2 shootings as domestic incidents based on the evidence at the time. Virginia Tech initially suspected Emily Hilscher's boyfriend Karl Thornhill of the shootings because he had gone shooting at a shooting range shortly before April 16. Other police departments have defended the response saying "a sprawling college campus cannot be locked down the way a high school could".

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