Dear Letter to the Editor,
Police Chief Tim Bryan’s sudden resignation both forces and offers us the obligation and the opportunity to consider the future of BCC’s policing, specifically to re-evaluate Mr. Bryan’s policies leading the college away from a “public safety” to a “law enforcement model” of policing. What is the best policing model for our college?
Perhaps Mr. Bryan’s prior military career explained his focus, but at a recent Alice training session, our trainer, as he spoke, was flanked by several of BCC’s new law enforcement officers – thumbs crammed into their utility belts, shaved heads or brush-cuts, hyper-armed military vets all dressed in black, sporting wrap-around sunglasses.
They exuded the air of special forces ready for a night raid. Have we considered whether this is the direction that we wish to go? Is this appropriate policing for a rural community college? Have we gone too far? Has there even been a discussion? Before we go farther in the direction of a militarized community college police force, before we proceed to spend large sums of our planned capital outlay on this sort of policing, let’s take a deep breath and have another look.
BCC now has the third largest college police force in the state, with 12 qualified officers, and anticipates more to come in the future. By way of comparison, the city of El Dorado has 27 officers for a population of approximately 13,000; does BCC need half of the complement of the entire City of El Dorado just to serve and protect our campuses? BCC has about twice as many police officers as Rose Hill, which has seven, total. Do we need twice the police force of a real town for a couple of rural community college campuses?
The question begs to be asked: Do we even need police, as opposed to well-trained security? As it is, BCC’s security and police radio circuits are monitored by the police departments of El Dorado and Butler County 24/7, and any serious incident will be responded to by all of these forces acting together. In Andover, the police station is less than a mile from our campus. Reaction times will be short, and, if need be – God forbid! – force will be overwhelming. Perhaps BCC having a large force of certified police is redundant.
Our Alice trainer explained that BCC police will be offering less service to students, because service to the students interferes with law enforcement. Again, let us consider whether this is appropriate policing for our college. Might not lots of friendly service to the students be the best, most proactive law enforcement we could offer? BCC’s focus is our students, and that has always been our strength, the thing that makes us the learning college of choice for the region. So offering less service to our students seems headed away from our goals, and our strength, which is the relationships that we so carefully build with our students. Maybe BCC should emphasize building relationships – community policing. Making conscious decisions to offer less service to students is something we need to have a second look at.
Our police do a great job, and kudos to BCC, the Administration, and the BCC police for so proactively moving to protect our students and our college in these sometimes dangerous times. It shows foresight and resolve to act when there are, indeed, threats raising their ugly heads We must be prepared. We all agree that a well-trained security force is called for. But is a militarized police force the appropriate response, or will it ultimately prove counter-productive because of reduced service and student focus, and the big money spent on a possibly redundant paramilitary force?
Mr. Bryan’s departure gives us the opportunity to re-examine our priorities as the hiring committee searches for the candidate who is the right fit for the job – well-qualified, capable of establishing professional and appropriate relationships with Admin, Faculty, and our true focus – the students.