USU is here for service, prevention
Jessica Whatcott, Staff Writer
The Utah State University police blotter often contains many reports of false security alarms and skateboarders doing illegal tricks. Sometimes, bigger incidents occur on campus. But when the campus is relatively quiet, the USU Police Department often gets involved in a number of other services, besides crime control, which are designed to keep campus safe. In light of this service focus, Sgt. Steve Milne said a campus-based department is still preferable to relying on the Logan City Police Department to patrol campus. Although it is a small area, he said during the course of a day more than 20,000 people may be passing through campus. “We are able to be more familiar with the way the university is set up,” Milne said. He painted a scenario of an emergency occuring on the fourth floor of the Animal Science Building. While city police might be fumbling over acronyms and campus maps, the campus force already knows where to go, and has the keys to get into the building. “We are a regular police department; our jurisdiction is the Utah State campus,” Milne said. The USUPD officers get the same certification and have “the same arrest power as all police officers,” he said. The USUPD has its own dispatch center open 24 hours a day. The center fields 911 calls from on campus, responds to alerts from the emergency stations on campus and coordinates reaction to fire or medical alerts through a central dispatch. Some of the differences between the USUPD and the LPD are the area of jurisdiction, the source of funding and the focus of activity. While the majority of campus lies in the area between 800 East and 1200 East, and Hwy. 89 and 1400 North, Milne explained that there is not a clear line of jurisdiction. For example, the Lyric Theatre, located in the center of Logan, is USU property and therefore subject to USUPD patrol. Just as a city budget pays for a city police force, USU provides a strict budget for its department. Also, after the state and the court system take their cut, money from fines and fees the department assesses goes back into the budget, Milne said. A major distinction between the city police force and the campus jurisdiction is that, as Milne explained, “as a police officer here you end up putting a greater emphasis on service.” In 1999, the department responded to 2,689 service calls, compared to 1,972 “incident calls” like the report of a suspicious person or an auto theft. When they don’t have to concentrate on crime control or emergency response, the USUPD spends most of its time conducting personal or money escorts, helping to free locked-in car keys and keeping track of fingerprints for new teachers or concealed-weapon holders. Despite the differences between the campus police and the Logan City force, the agencies work together on several occasions. In 1999, 124 agency assists were recorded. Most of the assists happen just off campus, Milne said. If LPD needs back-up and the campus police have an extra officer, USUPD will send support, and vice versa. Milne said the agencies have helped each other to break up house parties or direct traffic at the site of car crashes. Other times, assists are needed because USU students feel more comfortable reporting a crime that happened off campus to the university police. Something the campus police usually have nothing to do with is parking tickets, Milne said, although they do share a building with Parking and Transportation Services. That location is new for USUPD this year and can be found north of Romney Stadium near the motor pool. The university police can be reached for all non-emergencies at 797-1939.