How long have you been with the university?
I've been here 20 years. Before coming here, I was with the Cleveland Police Department.
What did you do there?
I spent about ten years in the homicide unit. I was with the tactical unit, and I taught at the police academy. I was a sergeant when I left.
Can you give us a general overview of your responsibilities?
Overall, I'm responsible for the safety of the entire campus community. We have thirty-five different buildings, and seventeen officers.
Tell us about your patrols.
We patrol the whole campus. Our people make one tour in the middle of the night. With the guard tour system they get to places they normally wouldn't get to.
In the past there has been a requirement by the insurance company to do at least one patrol a day — or night — and we're complying with that request.
So the reason you have a guard tour system is to satisfy the requirement of your insurance company?
That's one of the reasons. The other one is that The PIPE gets our people into the areas they normally wouldn't get to — it forces them into those areas — and that's why we put some of the stations back in nooks and crannies. So they do get to places where a problem could exist and they normally wouldn't be there. Especially on a busy night, they wouldn't be in those places.
How many checkpoints do you have?
We have 34 or 35, all indoors. We will probably be increasing that because we're refurbishing a building now, and we're going to build a new science center which is going to be completed — depending on when ground breaking is — within the next three to four years.
Before Guard1, what did you use?
We had the typical old big clock that you carry around on your shoulder with a strap, and [the manufacturer] told us that the technology was old and they were not going to service them anymore. Both clocks stopped running and that prompted us to look into new systems.
What did your evaluation involve?
We were looking at what was in the marketplace, and one of the things I liked about The PIPE was that it was light, it was easy to carry, and fit in the hand. We asked to have somebody come out and give us a demonstration.
Who set up the system?
Did you send your maintenance people out to set up the mounts?
No, we did it ourselves.
Do your people like it?
That probably depends on some of the people going around doing it. Sometimes you get a little complaint about it. For the most part they like it — they don’t have to carry that big clock around.
It's more convenient that way, it's user friendly. The sergeant that downloads it and makes the reports out on days thinks it's a good system. We like it.
Do you use incident buttons?
No. We do incidents, but we don't do it on a button. If there's a need, we just make a report on it.
How do you use the reports? Do you keep track of incidents?
We review them to see in fact that all the stations have been covered and from that, we know that the officer was out there doing what he should have been doing. And of course we review any [handwritten] reports that were made or anything the guard picks up along the way, but that doesn't come from the guard tour system. So if somebody's out on a tour, they usually say that while they were doing the tour they came across something, and the report reflects that.
As a college, are there any kinds of special security issues that you face? Parking issues?
Certainly there are always parking issues on campus — there's never enough parking.
Other special security issues?
We think that we're out patrolling and we're a deterrent to crime. We have a great location in that a lot of people don't evenknow where we are, and I think that helps keep down the crime problem. This is an expensive school to go to, so we think that helps too. People are here to get an education, rather than being here just to have a party, and so there are a lot of factors involved that we think help to keep the crime picture down.
Of course, anybody can wander in, and that's one of the reasons that we're out patrolling, just as a deterrent.
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