By Rona Ortiz |Staff Writer|
The Police Department at CSUSB is active on campus and very beneficial to students, faculty and staff.
The Campus Police Department employs 18 sworn police officers.
They have an active support staff including community service officers (CSO).
The CSOs are students who are trained to assist the officers and the CSUSB community.
Additionally, patrol teams monitor the campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Yet many students are unaware that we have active law enforcement, let alone an actual Police Department on campus.
“I’ve never seen an officer on campus,” said Lacey Matson. “I’ve walked to my car on a pitch black night and haven’t seen police patrolling,” she added.
The police on campus have a tough job; they are responsible for over 20,000 students on campus in addition to the surrounding residential area.
According to Scott Kovach, Support Services Supervisor, the campus police department keeps students informed of services offered through the campus website, new student orientations and crime prevention presentations.
The department also offers a campus escort service.
The escort program provides transportation to CSUSB students, staff, faculty, or visitors who are concerned about their safety.
This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can be requested through the police dispatchers at (909) 537-5165 or from a campus phone at extension 75165.
Many students express a general feeling of safety on campus.
“Campus police are here for us,” said Glynn Guerra. “I can’t rate their service because I haven’t had to use it, but I know they send out alerts to students,” she added.
The most recent alert sent was to notify students about the active shooter preparedness exercise.
“This is a campus wide exercise to prepare students in case there is a campus shooter,” Sargent L.Fields said. “It is important that student’s contact information is updated,” added Sargent R.Balderama who went on to say that they notify students via text message, email and phone calls.
Campus shootings are a growing concern in the U.S. The drill is an added measure of safety for CSUSB students.
The police department is committed to providing “quality service” to the campus community.
Michael Umana can attest to that; when his motorcycle was hit on campus, it took police minutes to respond. “They provided me with good information and thorough service,” he said.
When asked about emergency response times, “(It is) immediate, with an average time of 1-5 minutes on scene, depending where they are responding from,” stated Department Supervisor Scott Kovach.
The fact that our school has on site law enforcement allows for a prompt response to the community.
A substation is also located within the university housing.
“This enhances the safety of university residents, with officers assigned specifically to the residential community on the campus,” according to the university police website.
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