Awards

Chancellor and Provost Medallion - 2020

IUPUI Chancellor's Medallion

About Bill Abston

Deputy Chief of Police Bill Abston began his 43-year law enforcement career at IUPUI as a student cadet in 1977. After attending the IU Police Academy, he was hired as a full-time officer in 1978. Abston moved up the ranks from sergeant to lieutenant to captain in 2000. In 2014, he was promoted to deputy chief. A fixture on the IUPUI campus for over four decades, Abston was also a firearms instructor for the department and at the IU Police Academy. His primary goal was always the safety and security of IUPUI’s students, staff and faculty.

Abston attended Personal and Dignitary Protection School in 1984 and throughout his career worked dignitary protection for visitors to campus, such as former Vice President Dan Quayle, former Secretary of Education William Bennett, and former ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. In 2002 he attended the FBI National Academy and was a member of the Public Information Officer section of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

In recognition of his decades of service to IUPUI through his work for the Indiana University Police Department, his deep and abiding commitment to community policing, and his tremendous accomplishments as an IUPUI graduate who spent his entire career serving the university, Bill Abston was presented with an IUPUI Chancellor and Provost Medallion by Chancellor Nasser H. Paydar on January 29, 2021.