Photo: Chief Dooley sits down to talk about his force’s approach to crime on campus this semester. (Photo Credit: Aaron Berkowitz)
Aaron Berkowitz – General Assignment Reporter
The campus police chief, Joseph Dooley, said one crime is too many.
“We’ve worked hard to eliminate opportunities for crimes to occur on this campus,” said Chief Dooley. “But it takes more than just the police, it takes the community.”
According to the school’s 2012 crime report, the top three recorded crimes on campus were liquor law violations, drug abuse violations, and burglary/theft. The crime logs for the 2013-2014 semesters are not available on the school website at this time.
Chief Dooley said they are working on obtaining a warrant for an individual that they caught on video breaking into a car in one of the lots on campus. The amount of video cameras on campus and in the parking lots/garages has increased to assure the safety of everyone and their belongings.
The police force puts on an annual program called L.E.A.R.N,. in an effort to raise awareness among students of where they can reduce the chances of being a victim to some of the more common crimes.
“The Law Enforcement And Resident Network Program,” said Dooley. “It’s about connecting with the community.”
“I can understand why they would want to create more of a relationship with all of the students,” said Jamie Rowland, senior liberal studies major. “They want people to trust them and no one really trusts someone they don’t know.”
Rowland said he’s thought of being an officer and he had realized more of a police presence on campus this semester than in the past.
“I never really see them bother anybody, but I do see cops everywhere now. Seems like they have more cars and they hang out in the student center now which is new too,” said Rowland.
“It’s all strategy,” said Dooley. “We patrol by car, by foot, by bicycle. We now have a substation in the student center. We’ve been doing crime analysis and looking at where the crimes are occurring.”
This past week the SCSU police force got two new officers added to their family; officers Luchuk and Cordero.
Dooley said after the two new officers wrap up their three-month training period that he is confident they will make noticeable contributions to the force’s effort to keep everyone on campus safe and the crime rate lower than before.
Photo Credit: Isabel Chenoweth/SCSU Public Affairs)
“We couldn’t be more proud of the department for even when our numbers are down they continue to provide quality of service,” said Dooley. “We will have the ability to be even more strategic in our approach.”
At the swearing in ceremony for officers Luchuk and Cordero, Deputy Chief Phillip Pessina said he encourages students to reach out to the officers and meet them halfway.
Dooley also said he wants the students to feel more comfortable approaching the officers and to also just do the simple things that can dramatically help reduce the chances of being victims to campus crimes.
“Lock up your stuff,” said Dooley. “If someone has the opportunity to steal your stuff and they want to take it they have a better chance of doing that with something that is left unlocked.”
The healthy relationship between the people who want to be protected and the people who protect campus is maintained by understanding that it is a two way street.
“Something that may be trivial to one person might be that piece to the puzzle that we were missing,” said Dooley. “I know we are doing the right thing and we just need to keep doing it.”
