Campus Security

Keep it clean

2011-06-01T23:21:00.002-04:00

Keeping your surroundings clean can help deter crime. If a property looks like nobody cares, the criminals think you don't care enough to keep an eye on it. It pays to keep everything about the campus clean. That means staying on top of the grounds keepers, maintenance and even your security personnel to make sure that everything is in good repair and clean - inside and out.

http://www.sunbreezeclean.com

Check Your Rights At The Door, Please!

2010-04-03T13:47:00.002-04:00

It amazes me. We send our children to schools and the officials at the school, quite often, act as if the constitution and due process was left outside the door and one may pick it up again as you exit the school. Common sense, the rule of law and fairness give way to iron-fisted, tyrannical rule with no compassion, no common sense and no rights.

I read an article today that caused me to sit back and wonder what has led us to the day when we can teach children about the constitution on the one hand, then on the other hand throw them in jail for a minor infraction. The article in question was about a 12 year old girl that scribbled a note on her desk, put a smiley face on it, then wrote a note stating her love for her two friends. Wow! What a criminal! Destroying property! Right?

Wrong! The scribblings were all written in a washable marker. That didn't matter to the tyrants that run our schools. Nope. They marched the girl off to the safety officer who promptly searched her, called the police and demanded her arrest. The police were no better. They arrived on scene and promptly arrested the girl. That will teach her! The judge in the case was no better. He sentenced the girl to community service and writing an essay about what she had learned from the experience.

I have a few suggestions for her. The first lesson is that the constitution only applies to grown people. Once one enters a public school the constitution is only a document that is to be discussed and certainly not applied.

The second lesson is that common sense is for out there. In our public schools we will not tolerate the slightest deviation from our rules. In our public schools tolerance is preached but not practiced. You can not even have a picture of a gun, even a crude drawing of one, or your run afoul of the no tolerance ban on guns. I don't know how students have learned about the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, the Gulf War. Wait, maybe they are learning none of that. That would require pictures of men carrying guns.

The third lesson would be that nobody, from the teacher to the judge would recognize the fact that it was a washable marker. The punishment, if any was really required, might have been to give the kid a bottle of 409 and a paper towel and have her wash her misdeeds away. The problem would have been solved.

We must demand more from our public schools. We must demand safety for our children. Carting them off to jail for minor infractions can lead to all sorts of harm. It teaches them that tyranny is the norm and that they are powerless against the powers that are in control - Total control!

Have You Ever Had One Of Those Days

2006-08-03T06:53:00.000-04:00

We have all had them! You get up in the morning and find from the very start things are conspiring against you. There is no hot water, you stumble to the kitchen only to find that you are out of milk, then you burn the toast, then you finally make it out to the car only to find that you have a flat! When the whole day starts to look like Muphy is not just visiting...he has taken up residence in your home....why even bother to go to work?

Well, we get up and go to work because we must. We have a duty to our school and no matter what comes at us on the home front, you will find the professional courage to step out into this unruly world and attempt to tame your corner of it. It is not always easy, but we must be there because not only are the students counting on us, the parents are, the faculty members are and the staff members are. With all of that riding on our shoulders we sometimes forget to take care of ourselves.

I know that there are times where I feel like I just can not take another thing going wrong. However, that is the time when you know that you need to take a break. If you do not take occasional breaks along the way you are headed for disaster and certain burn-out. The job of a lawenforcement professional or security professional on a college campus can be taxing to say the least.

Mini vacations are just the answer. Sometimes a change of scenery is just what it will take to give you a fresh outlook on your job and on life itself. If you feel yourself feeling like you need a break - take one! Make sure that your bases are covered and then leave someone else in charge and take a break. Your institution will somehow make it without you. In fact, it was probably there before you got there and will be there well after you leave.

Mini vacations can be a one day jaunt to the mountains or beach or a long weekend of relaxing or catching up on chores around the house so that you will not have a morning like what was described at the beginning of this article. If you don't take the time to do such things it can become overwhelming as things begin to mount up and you feel as if you are losing control.

With the school year about to start again you need to have it well planned. If you do then the minor glitches that come up will be much easier to deal with and it will leave you more time for doing such things as taking a mini vacation. You also need to coordinate your time off so that you can get the maximum amount of enjoyment without worrying that you are leaving your institution without a key person. For instance, don't plan on taking a mini vacation just before a major event on campus. You will come back and feel rushed to make the necessary preparations and the vacation will be despised by you because you are so far behind.

Take a break.....put your feet up.....and enjoy your time off!

Don't Squash A Flea With An Elephant!

2006-01-09T12:58:00.000-05:00

Effective management and managers are hard to find. Most people are not naturally born managers. What we must do is learn how to manage people and events. We can learn a lot by watching what others do that works or doesn't work.

I have learned a lot from managers who exhibited very poor management or people skills. I remember one manager who had a bad reputation in almost every aspect of his relationship with the people who worked for him. People feared him. He often chewed people out right in front of others. People hated him. He often cursed people out for not doing what he thought they should be doing. People hated him. This manager often promoted people who would do crooked things that benefited him personally, yet cost the company he was working for hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly even into the millions. I hated him - but I learned to watch this negative example of what not to do when managing people. Watch people who are mangers and learn not to make the same mistakes they make.

The title of this article seems to have nothing to do with the art of management. That is, until you look at an example of someone taking an extreme measure to correct a minor problem. This was illustrated to me one day when the company moved that hated manager to another smaller unit. They then installed a new manager who seemed to have much better interpersonal skills. However, he often sqaushed fleas with an elephant. What do I mean by this?

If you want to kill fleas on a dog, what do you do? Well, you first make sure that it is fleas that you are trying to kill so that you use the right solution. Next you use enough of the solution to kill the fleas but not the dog. If you have an elephant handy you can try killing the fleas with the said elephant, however, the dog is not going to appreciate having this monster stepping on him to kill his fleas. It probably would not kill the fleas and it would most likely kill the dog.

Here is what I am talking about in terms of management. The new manager who took the reins of the store where I worked (you remember, he replaced the hated manager) decided he would call his wife each day before he left work to let her know that he was on his way home. He always left at about 5:30 or 5:45. One day he picked up the phone and dialed 9 to get an outside line. He was unable to get an outside line. It seemed that all of the outgoing lines were busy. He tried several times to get his call through. He met with no success. He left frustrated.

The next day he told the operations manager to have access to all the outside lines blocked. To make a call he wanted the store associates to call the store operator and for the operator to log all outgoing calls. There were over 100 phones in the store. Much of the time the associates were handling customers by phone to answer questions or transact business. This new manager thought they were making personal phone calls. Absolutley right, some were. Most were not!

Sales began to immediately decline. The new manager blamed the decrease on everything around. You name it, he blamed it at one time or another. Oh, except for the fact that nobody could conduct routine business by phone with out having to jump through hoops and have every call logged. After loosing millions of dollars in sales the company finally moved the new manager to another store. He had solved the percieved problem by taking a drastic measure to fix a problem but he killed the sales in the store in the process. I developed my "Don't squash fleas with an elephant!" management style right then and there!

What does this have to do with campus law enforcement? Well, anytime you are dealing with people you have to keep in mind that they are just dogs with fleas. If you come down with heavy handed techniques or approaches to problems you may be causing more harm than good. Take a look at your actions and see if there is a more subtle and, quite possibly, a better way to make necessary changes. They will probably be more efective in the long run.

A Few Days Away From A New Semester

2005-12-29T16:13:00.000-05:00

We are just a few days away from a new year and most colleges and universities are already gearing up for the return of students. It is important to keep a few things in mind as we prepare our campuses for the return of students. For some freshmen who will begin college in the spring semester, this will be the opportunity their chosen college or university will have to confirm in their minds the fact that they have chosen their school wisely. For returning students it will be the chance the university or college has to prove that they listen to suggestions, complaints and grievances of their students, faculty and staff.

You have a chance to impress them all over again with the start of each new semester. You can impress the students that come to your campus by repairing that nagging door that will not close properly or by cleaning up around the gates to your campus. A clean well maintained campus will help foster a image of your campus that is positive. A few new landscaping elements or new lighting might be just the ticket for showing that you care about the area that your students inhabit.

As you are taking stock of your surroundings, take a look at your vehicles. I know of one situation where the maintenance supervisor told the president of the college that he was going to put the name of the college on the truck they used and park it in a very conspicuous place if it was not replaced soon. The rusting spots on the body, the smoke belching from the exhaust, the loose steering, the bad brakes.... You get the picture... Was not enough to get the administration to replace the truck. However, the threat of a little embarrassment worked like a charm. Over the summer the truck quietly disappeared bringing the paltry price of scrap metal. Yes, the car crusher was all it was worth. Yet it had been used on the campus for years in that condition.

Take a look at your every day items. Tools, vehicles, buildings, gates and other publicly visible items. They all make a statement about your campus. If your campus looks like it isn't cared for it invites crime to your campus. It is more than a cosmetic appearance

Crime Prevention Tips

2005-11-04T15:57:00.000-05:00

Have you given any thought to what would help keep crime from happening. It is much better to prevent crime than to investigate it. But how do you keep crimes from happening?

To answer that question we would look at what schools have done in the past that works. Here are a few ideas that schools have submitted that appear to work.

1. Prosecute crimes to the fullest extent of the law. By doing so you will end up in court a lot but you will be in front of many people who commit crimes and they will see that you mean business about protecting your campus.

2. Get to know the people outside your campus. Much of the crime one school reported came from the area in very near proximity to the campus. The Chief of Security joined the neighborhood association and they got involved in what was going on outside the gates. They learned where the problems were and the clout of the college motivated the local police in ways that the ordinary citizen couldn't. Remember, tax paying students can generate a lot of money for a city or county (or parish for you folks in LA). Wouldn't it be great if more students came to their city to pay taxes?

3. Organize events that have a positive impact on young people before they get in trouble. Also, if you keep people in the young teen to mid-twenties age group busy doing something positive then you will prevent a certain amount of crime. These youngsters usually know more about who is doing what and is a great source of intelligence on persons who commit crimes, fence stolen property, buy or sell drugs and other undesirable problems. Make sure that someone from your campus police or security is involved in your community for the purpose of learning who is doing what while at the same time keeping those most likely to commit crimes busy doing something positive. In other words, know your enemy.

4. Use the media to communicate crime prevention measures your school uses. This will put the criminal on notice that they might have an easier time elsewhere. Don't forget to communicate with your school's newspaper and student organizations.

5. Cultivate a good working relationship with local prosecutors and police. Even if you have sworn officers you still need to share information with your local and state police or sheriff's office. If your school has officers that have specialized training, offer their services to other jurisdictions, task forces, and agencies. There will be a wealth of information exchanged. However, do be careful with information about your students information that might be protected under FERPA.

Campus Funnies

2005-10-14T17:26:00.000-04:00

In recent years I have been asked some strange questions. At times I have to give it some thought and come up with an appropriate answer. Other times it takes a little research to come up with the answer. Sometimes the answer is in the question.

At one point I ran the bookstore in our college. It was fun. I met all the students and had time to get to know many of them. I knew what they liked, what they didn't like, who was doing well in school. Sometimes I felt as if I was the bartender because I listened to the gripes, complaints, concerns and plans of the students. One day though, I was asked a question that I just couldn't help but laugh about.

This young freshman walked in and noticed that we sold pre-paid phone cards. She was excited and wanted to purchase one. "How much is a$10 phone card?" she asked. Everyone within earshot heard the question, then the laughter. "Uhhhhhhhh - Ten Dollars" was my answer. Nope, didn't even have to think about that one.
Of course, this was the same person that had asked a few days earlier "What course is this book for?" She held up the book with the title Introduction to Biology. She had removed it from the shelf that had a sign that said "Introduction to Biology" Course Number GE 1234, Professor Schmoe. "Hmmmmmm, I think that would be for "Introduction to Biology" I stated. Nope, that wasn't one of the questions that I had to think about either.

Communications: The Key To Surviving a Disaster

2005-09-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

Recent events have shown the need to have communications that allow police, fire, EMS, security and other agencies in the affected area be able to communicate effectively. How many times will we have disasters occur where we see the same problems pop up before we will do something to correct them?

In this day, where the electronic form of communication is so vital, we see little advanced effort to see that all emergency responders in a geographic area are able to communicate with one another in an emergency situation. We have drills that are, in my humble opinion, not realistic in simulating the disasters impact on the communications facilities that are available. Yet, in nearly every disaster that I can think of, communications, or the lack thereof, is the key ingredient in the failure of a proper response. I would propose that procedures be developed to see that everyone in the emergency response field be able to communicate with each other.

It seems to me that there should be careful consideration given to communications even at the expense of other aspects of response to disasters. For example, what good does it do to have ambulances, rescue helicopters, rescue teams, fire fighters or police officers if they can not be dispatched to areas where they are needed. There should be a plan that has been rehearsed in advance that would allow for the immediate implementation of an emergency communications plan.

I have tried for years to gain access to the cities emergency communications for the colleges and universities in our area. A separate channel for these institutions to speak directly to emergency services would allow the various emergency responders to have more timely responses to areas of our city that house, on a persons per square mile basis, a much higher than normal density of population. This fact makes these both a greater burden on the city in an emergency and a valuable resource in a time of crisis. Additional communications equipment, personnel and facilities might be available that otherwise would be overlooked and the personnel at these locations know their facilities best making it more efficient to have them assist in responding to their facilities.

A prime example of this is a case where a medical response was delayed to a serious condition because the caller was not with the victim. EMS dispatchers did what their protocol demanded. A call went out to the EMS crew with a routine response requested. Some 17 minutes after the initial call the crew rolled up in front of our school. They began to meander to the back of their rig to get their equipment and chit chatted about stuff going on in their lives. Meanwhile, a person who had had open heart surgery about three months earlier lay on the floor in a semi-conscious state. After being advised three times by a bystander that they thought the person was dying and it was possibly a heart attack did the EMS crew realize the seriousness of the call. They went with an emergency response to the hospital. If the security personnel on site had had direct access to a channel for such emergencies, it was discovered that the initial call would have warranted an emergency response. Where are we today? The city still does not have a way for school and university personnel to communicate by radio to the dispatchers. What would happen in a Columbine situation, fire or other medical emergency?

By paying attention to the details of a comprehensive communications plan we can eliminate much of the current problems we have in communicating in an emergency situation. These minor disasters can be multiplied several hundreds of times over in a wide spread disaster caused by earthquake, hurricane, tornado, flood or even a terrorist attack. Why not fix the problems that we know exist?

Hurricane Katrina: Are You Prepared For Catastrophe

2005-09-06T07:35:00.000-04:00

As hurricane Katrina slammed into the gulf coast we saw the devastation that a natural disaster can bring. This will be the most costly natural disaster in American history in terms of both money and lives. We heard the desperation in the voice of the residents, the mayor, the president of the parish and the first responders.

It has prompted me to contact the city government and ask that our school be included in any disaster drills and exercises. It is important that you take a proactive approach to disaster planning and response. It crossed my mind that in my nine years in the security department at my school, we have never been contacted by city officials, Red Cross, FEMA, County, State or any other official to find out what kind of response would be needed to evacuate the students from our campus if the need should arise. We also have facilities that might be of interest to these agencies if they needed to have a place to set up an emergency shelter in the case of a disaster.

I was shocked to hear that there was confusion as to who was in charge in New Orleans. There is a command protocol when there is a terror incident. It seems logical to me that even though the event was not a terror plot, there was mass destruction. Therefore, the only logical course of action would be to treat it the same as if it were a terror plot, minus the criminal investigation. It is only through disaster planning and practice exercises that these types of problems are identified and addressed. It is much better to have the problems show up in a practice exercise than to realize that you have a problem with command and control during a disaster of this magnitude.

With this in mind, do a few things now so that you know how to handle a catastrophic event at your school.
1. Contact your local Red Cross chapter and see if they have your facilities information up to date
2. Contact your county government or city government to confirm that they know you have x number of
people to evacuate in case of a disaster.
3. Ask to be included in any disaster drills or exercises
4. Make sure that you store water if you have a predicted storm coming your way.
5. Make sure your emergency equipment includes the things you use most commonly and that are not
electrically operated.
6. Keep a list of up to date phone numbers of key response personnel that you meet at disaster drills.
7. Don't depend on technology too much when you are in the midst of a disaster.
8. Have some way to mark your street name on the pavement in case road signs are not visible, damaged
or missing.
9. Work toward survival first, rescue second and then recovery.
10. In a major disaster expect help to arrive after 1 week. You must do it all prior to that!
11. Be sure your basic first aid skills are up to date.

Who Has To Report Clery Act Crimes?

2005-08-05T13:50:00.000-04:00

So, you are the coach of the men's basketball team. You don't have to worry about this Clery Act reporting, Right? Wrong! The Department of Education states that if you are a "Campus Security Authority" then you must report crimes for inclusion in the crime statistics for your school if you become aware of them. If you have significant responsibility for student activities then you are considered a Campus Security Authority.

How do you determine if you are a campus security authority? The Department of Education leaves this determination a little foggy. It is determined by the function of the job you do, not by the title of the job. For instance, a faculty member who has no function other than to walk into the classroom and teach and does not advise students probably wouldn't need to be considered a campus security authority. However, if the faculty member has significant interaction with students outside of a classroom, such as a coach of a basketball or football team, then that faculty member would be considered a campus security authority. Also, if the faculty member is in an advisory role, then the faculty member must report crimes that they become aware of.

"The function of a campus security Authority is to report to the appropriate law enforcement personnel, either campus police or local police, or to an official or office designated by the institution, those allegations of Clery Act crimes that he or she concludes are made in good faith." (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education, The Handbook for Campus Crime Reporting, Washington, D.C., 2005)

Failure to report crimes properly can lead to fines of up to $27,500 per violation so it is good to be aware of Clery and its complicated requirements. This is something that could put a crunch on your budgets if you are at a large school and something that could put you out of business if you are at a small school. It will pay to know whether you are a campus security authority or not.

Are you Ready?

2005-08-04T17:08:00.000-04:00

As we fast approach the beginning of a new school year, we must ask ourselves the question. ARE WE READY?

Take a look around your campus. Make sure that maintenance items that need to be addressed are done quickly. Though this doesn't sound much like a security concern, it really is. If you campus looks run down or in a sad state of repair you are inviting crime to your campus. If it looks as if nobody cares you will find that criminals might take that to mean that you also don't care about crime. It is a psychological way of letting people know you care about all aspects of your campus.

Don't forget to check the street lights near your campus. Security should contact your local power company or city maintenance department to have street lights repaired. You can help facilitate repairs by making it easy to spot the light that is in need of repair. One school's security department marks the lights with yellow caution tape. It is available at Home Depot, Lowes, Galls and many other sources. Leave enough dangling that the breeze will cause it to move freely. This will make it easy for the repair people to spot because they usually do the repairs in the day time. (Why? I don't know!)

Check your own lighting. Have maintenance check your campus lights to make sure they are in proper working order. A dark corner of campus is very inviting to a criminal. Also, take a look in your dormitories and other buildings for fire exit lights that are not working. While you are in the buildings check to see that emergency lights operate in case of a power failure.

Take the remaining days of down time and check your radios, repeaters, vehicles, uniforms and see that all other equipment is in proper working order. In addition, while you are checking on things, make sure that any certifications that are necessary are up to date. This might include O.C. certification, baton, handcuffing, firearms training, practice and qualification, all in-service training and other requirements of your state.

Visibility Prevents Crime

2005-07-28T19:27:00.000-04:00

Over the last 3 years I have developed a style for patrolling our campus that has had a significant impact on the reduction of property crimes committed on or near our campus. There are several key aspects to this style of patrol. I call it, for the lack of better terms, Obnoxious Visibility Patrol.

We had had on average five or six cars broken into in a one block area every year and fewer broken into in other locations on the campus. Most were cars that were parked on a street in front of a dormitory. We tried extra lighting. We installed street lights that were to "light a vacant lot that we owned" because the city said the lights on the street were sufficient. We still had cars being broken into. What to do?

I decided that if we had a more highly visible way of letting people know that security was watching the campus we might cut down on the crime happening nearby. I bought a 3.5 million candlepower spotlight. As the guards make their rounds they take the spotlight and point it at various locations across the campus. We can easily light someone up from two blocks away. It began to work quite well. We had fewer larceny from auto reports. It was good but still not quite good enough to satisfy me.

Our next step was to have saturation nights. I scheduled double the normal manpower on a few nights early in the fall semsester. I scheduled this coverage on Friday and Saturday nights when we tended to have most of the auto burglaries. The guards were scattered across the campus. One night there were two men arguing (not students, just folks from the neighborhood) and one of the guards called for backup. Four guards responded and were there within seconds. The guards didn't have to say a word to the men. They saw four uniforms coming toward them and they looked at each other and said, "Let's get out of here!" They left without so much as an utterance from the guards. Word got out on the street that we had a small army protecting the campus. Most of the time we don't, but the bad guys never know when we will have a "saturation night." I started scheduling saturation nights several times each semester.

However, we still had a few larcenies from autos. It was mostly stereos being stolen. I decided to check the motor vehicle laws to see what the law said about operating flashing lights on a vehicle. The only prohibition in North Carolina was against the use of blue or red lights. I sent a note to the local police to inform them that we planned on installing a green light bar on a vehicle. It was a professional courtesy to let them know what we were doing and why, and to give them a chance to object to it even though it is legal. I began patrolling our campus and in the parking lots I would activate the obnoxious green light. I would also activate it while driving on the one street where we had had the most larcenies from autos. It worked! In the last 18 months we have had one car broken into. A student left a boom box in plain view and some bad guy came by saw it, smashed a window, reached in and the boom box was gone in five seconds.

Be obnoxiously visible and you will cut down on the chance that your campus will have a serious crime happen.

Crime Prevention Tips

2005-07-25T12:19:00.000-04:00

80% of all crime is committed because the opportunity exists. When you take the opportunity for a crime to take place then you have taken a big step toward prevention. Take a moment to look at your surroundings if you are new to a campus. Look at where the well lit areas are. Look at the campus as if you were a bad guy. Where would you hide, what would you do, where would you look for victims? Don't forget to look in the obvious dark corners, but also check out even the well lit areas that might leave you far from a building or from people.

Speaking of people brings up the next point. You should try to walk with someone. Most campuses offer escorts, especially for the ladies. Check with your institution's police or security department to see how to contact them. Some schools distribute business cards with the police or security number on it. Memorize the number so that if you are caught without the card you can still contact them for an escort. Keep in mind that there are many who need this service so be prepared to leave as soon as the security person arrives to escort you. Don't keep them waiting while you finish your conversation or typing that last paragraph on the paper that is due the next day. Always wait for the security person once you have placed the call for an escort. Cancel the call if someone comes along that you know and you can walk with to your destination.

Keep dorm rooms locked. Even short periods of time can allow someone the opportunity to sneak in and take you belongings. It is a good idea to keep a list of serial numbers of items that might be stolen. Don't forget your television, computer, bicycle and many other items have serial numbers. Write them down and leave them with your parents. If they are stolen you may get them back if you can supply the serial number. If not, you will probably never see it again even if the police locate the item. Without being able to prove who the item belongs to they simply can't return it to you. You will likely see these items in the next police auction!

Useful Links

2005-07-18T19:04:00.000-04:00

http://www.ncpc.org/

http://www.securityoncampus.org/schools/cleryact/handbook.pdf

http://www.wspd.org

http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister

http://surveys.ope.ed.gov/security

Dealing With The Police

2005-07-15T00:35:00.000-04:00

POLICE!

That is what wasn't on the vehicle that I observed.

Quite often, as we patrol the campus that we are responsible for, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma. We observe suspicious activity at a location just outside our property. Since we are not police and our main goal is to be seen, we do not confront people. So, we place a call to our local police department. Their response is often quick and professional. However, there are times when the police feel that we are "trying to be the police."

This happened recently as I was patrolling the campus. I had been trying to contact a person at a residence that is adjacent to our property. They had witnessed a situation between me and another man who claimed that I had not done enough to protect his friend. His friend and another person got into a physical altercation. As I drove through the area to check on our property, he came out of a house waving a shirt and yelling for someone to stop. Another man was walking away from that general area and I thought he was yelling at him. A lady, sitting at a nearby residence in a lawn chair with what appeared to be relatives or friends, looked at me and said, "Don’t pay attention to him. He is crazy."

Well, I didn't think I needed to deal with a crazy person so I continued on my rounds. The next day I got word that the man had called the administration and complained that I had ignored his plea for me to stop.

I needed to contact the lady that was sitting in the lawn chair and see if she had seen anything criminal happening. I wanted to know for two reasons. Reason one is the Clery Act. Reason two is that I wanted to know if I had missed something that possibly I should have seen. I stopped by the lady's residence two or three times in the course of the day and nobody was home. The people who live there are acquaintances and I know them when I see them. I wouldn't call them friends.

Later that night I saw a vehicle parked in the driveway of the residence of the people I had been trying to contact. Thinking that the people to whom I needed to speak with had returned, I turned toward the driveway and had just started to pull in when I noticed that the man coming from the back side of the house was not the resident that belonged there. Then he acted like a deer caught in the headlights of a fast moving vehicle. I got a partial license number and as I drove away this guy jumped in his vehicle and drove off at an excessive speed.

I made a turn around an island that has two houses sitting in the middle and came up behind the vehicle. I thought I might be able to get a complete license number at the stop sign we were approaching just in case he had done something at the residence in question. I observed the vehicle for a couple of blocks then returned to our property and called the local police. I gave a description of the vehicle and the address of the house where he was seen.A few minutes later a police officer pulled up and said in a mad tone "What is the urgency about this vehicle?" To which I replied that there was no "urgency." He told me that there was a problem with me "approaching people who were not on our property." He then added something to the effect that "you are not the police and you can't go around approaching people." After explaining the details the officer said that he wasn't mad at me, he was just concerned for me. That was not what I heard in his voice. His demeanor changed and we parted as friends.

It seems that the problem was that I had inadvertently called the police about an undercover officer who was working on a case in the area. I almost accidentally messed up their operation.My suggestion to those in the sworn ranks is this. When you know that a school patrols an area heavily you should expect such occasions to occur from time to time. If you can, contact the head of security and tell them that you need them to stay out of area X until such and such time or date. You don't have to be specific about addresses or exactly what you are working on. That is not why or what I need to know. I just need you to tell me that you need me to stay away so that I don't call and send a uniformed officer to an address right next to where you are working because that doesn't help your undercover operations at all. Also, it would keep me, an unarmed guard, out of a potentially dangerous situation. If we work together, we can let you continue catching bad guys and we can continue keeping our campuses safe and out of your way.

Humor: Day of Registration

2005-07-15T00:06:00.000-04:00

We have all seen it, that dazed look in the freshman's eyes as he gets to the next to last table in the registration process. It was fall and the registration line was long. I had many students left before I would be able to walk out the door for the evening and things such as computers were just not cooperating. I was about ready to fling the computer out the window and just use the good old pen and paper. Sanity had left me a couple of hours earlier and I too had a dazed look on my face as I went through the process of registering vehicles. This is not rocket science, but it is one of those things that you have to do each year.

One young freshman stepped up and didn't have her vehicle registration filled out. To save a little time I began asking the questions. You know, the important stuff like name, address, and phone. This young lady got all those questions right so I thought, What the heck, I might as well ask her what the license number is. Mind you, this is vehicle registration. She pulled out her driver's license and dutifully handed it to me. I politely handed it back and told her I needed her vehicle license plate.

She started reciting the letters PSD 1234 or something like that. With the noise in the background I couldn't tell if she was saying PFD or PSD. Being the resourceful person I am, I said, "Did you say P as in Paul, F as in Frank and D as in David?" She stood there for a minute looking at me with a puzzled look and then said, "I don't know what it spells." It provided a laugh for me just when I needed a good break from the routine of keying in mundane details.

There were several of us at the vehicle registration table and we all had a good laugh about it after she left. The poor freshmen, they don't realize how entertaining they can be at times.

Campus Security

2005-07-14T23:56:00.000-04:00

This blog is intended to allow those in campus law enforcement to express opinions and discuss ways of effectively dealing with a changing world. It is designed so that both sworn and non-sworn personnel can gain something from the information and so that we can all work toward making our campuses safer and a better place for learning.

With that in mind, I invite people who are actively in campus policing or security or those who are retired to make suggestions, offer advice, air gripes and otherwise be helpful to one another.

I hope that you find this blog helpful and at times humorous.