During anniversary celebrations of the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety on Sunday, four police chiefs will come together to celebrate 75 years of protecting the campus community.
East Lansing police patrolled MSU's campus until September 23, 1947 when an independent campus department formed. The first police chief, Arthur Brandstatter, was both chief and director of the School of Police Administration.
"We had an impact on the quality of law enforcement," Brandstatter said.
During his 13-year tenure, he spent time developing and defining police powers. The presence of the police organization strengthened and was the beginning of an actual public safety department, Brandstatter said.
When he first started in his capacity as director, Brandstatter's office was across campus from the police department. He said one of the largest developments was just getting the offices placed closer to the police department so he could stay informed.
Though still in its infancy, Brandstatter said the department was off to a excellent start.
"We were a model for other departments," he said. "We helped support the development of better standards for other departments."
Richard Bernitt was appointed police chief in 1960, and served for 26 years. He worked with the city and students to help keep campus safe before MSU had its own police department in the 1940s.
As a student in 1941, Bernitt formed a public safety group with other students and helped East Lansing police patrol the campus. In the 1950s Bernitt moved on to become part of the university's safety department, focusing on keeping the campus safe from fire.
"It was a very loose operation," Bernitt said. "We were 99 percent concerned with building security and doors being locked."
As police chief Bernitt helped to raise the organization's standards of education, making it a requirement for officers to have a college education.
"I tried to hire people smarter then I was", he said jokingly. "They do my work for me."
Of all the people Bernitt hired, he said about 40 of them went on to become police chiefs.
One of them, Bruce Benson, became MSU police chief in 1986.
As chief he revamped campus policing, switching over from a traditional style of responding to calls, patrolling and investigating to community policing.
During his term officers were given "beats," or assignments to cover different areas of campus, and were responsible for learning the concerns of the community and building relationships between civilians and police.
Benson said that the 1980s were a very bad time for the university in terms of crimes and danger on campus.
"The use of community policing brought crime down 70 percent," he said.
Benson instituted the use of the Dale Carnegie training courses. The courses help educate officers about how to listen to people and care about their concerns. Benson also oversaw the diversification of the department.
"I remember when the title 'policeman' changed to 'police officer,'" he said.
In 2002, Jim Dunlap stepped into office as police chief. With his direction the idea of community policing was expanded to be settled into four target areas with stronger bonds between the department and the MSU community, he said.
"I always tried to work really hard," Dunlap said. "I can't think of any time that I worked here that I didn't want to come into work."
