MSU police are taking a team approach to community policing.
The Department of Police and Public Safety has redesigned its campus patrol program to assign more officers to specific areas of campus. Officials hope the measure will improve safety and enhance officers’ relationship with students.
The new program divides campus into compass-point quadrants and assigns a team to each area. The teams operate from two designated bases within their area and a leader is assigned to each base.
“Leaders coordinate activities and keep the other officers abreast of what’s going on,”said Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor, who oversees the community teams.
In past years, one community officer was assigned to each residence hall complex, but now, eight officers, along with a pest-control officer, a parking-services employee and a detective, also are assigned to each campus quadrant.
McGlothian-Taylor said the collaborative approach will allow for more brainstorming and creative initiatives within the teams and give officers a chance to serve in areas they prefer.
“It personalizes things - in terms of the officers’ knowing students, faculty and staff,” she said.
Despite officers’ efforts, some students still feel relationships among students and officers will be strained.
“There’s a stigma attached to police,” Elizabeth North said. “I see a police car and I slam on my brakes even though 99.9 percent of the time I’m not speeding.”
The family community services senior said students aren’t going to be willing to get to know police “unless the officers really try to reach out to them.”
But reaching out was exactly what officers had in mind when implementing the program, Capt. Dave Trexler said.
“Our primary concern was better servicing the community,” he said.
The team approach is just one of the changes MSU police Chief Jim Dunlap has implemented since he’s taken control of the campus force.
The former assistant chief assumed the department’s top duties in July after Bruce Benson retired. Dunlap also created 12-hour shifts within the department to help make more officers available on busy weekend nights.
Police also hope to increase crime prevention and analysis with team detectives, Trexler said.
“We feel we need to step it up a notch and keep ahead of that,” he said.
Students and staff are encouraged to provide the department with feedback on the effectiveness of the new program by contacting their community police team leader or calling the department, Trexler said.
“From the community perspective, they’ve got a team of resources they can go to,” he said.
Police officials also have invited East Lansing firefighters to be a part of their team patrols.
“I think it’s a fabulous idea,” East Lansing Fire Marshal Bob Pratt said.
East Lansing officials have taken a similar approach with neighborhood resource programs and say it has been successful in combating problems brought to officials by the community, Pratt said.
But for MSU’s new policing to be as successful, students and staff have to contribute, said officer Lorrie Bates, a member of the department’s No. 3 team, which oversees South Complex and Spartan Village apartments.
“It’s not entirely up to us - it’s up to the residents themselves to help make it work,” she said.
Each team has been organizing various educational programs and get-to-know-you occasions within their campus area, Bates said.
Advertising junior Sonja Andersen said she hopes officers’ plans for the new school year help student-police relations, but added it’s going to take tremendous effort.
“(Police) need to work on how they communicate and deal with people, instead of just saying ‘I’m a police officer in authority - deal with it,’” Andersen said.
Tara May can be reached at maytara@msu.edu.
