CCSU Police Provide Safety and Welcoming Atmosphere

There is a house at 1 Pikiell Drive off of Paul Manafort Drive in New Britain that employs a group of citizens who take more pride in Central Connecticut State University than some professors. This “house” is the University Police Department, and each of its inhabitants works everyday to keep the CCSU campus safe.

Comprised of approximately 23 sworn police officers, the CCSU Police Department employs both men and women who are tested and trained to be at their best. These personnel work day and night to maintain the integrity of Central’s campus, not only when it comes to University students acting in less-than-intelligent ways, but also if a serious problem should arise.

Sergeant Jerry Erwin, a member of the CCSU Police Department for nine years and overseer to the second shift – weeknights from 3:00 to 11:00 p.m. – said that the key to a respectable department is something he calls “Community Policing,” an idea in which every student, faculty member and employee of CCSU is important.

“I think one of the main reasons we are not as busy as a lot of other police departments is the community policing aspect,” Sergeant Erwin explained. “If you’re out there in the community, people are less apt to misbehave or need behavior modification methods to teach them the right way. It’s because of getting to know people on a personal level that they don’t want to misbehave because they feel like they’re disrespecting you or the police department.”

Officer Tommy Hayes, a former New Britain Police Officer for 23 years and member of Sergeant Erwin’s team, is now retired and working on his second pension. He agreed that getting to know your community is an important part of successful policing.

“Having a relationship with students can be fruitful for getting information because they feel more at ease talking to us. Because of those relationships, we tend to give students a little extra leeway; you make mistakes, and that’s what education is about,” he said.

Sergeant Erwin said that not only is the relationship with students important but also his relationship with other officers. He explained that everything he does as a police officer depends on the people he works with, most significantly those directly under his watch.

“Now, as a supervisor of this shift, the only way I succeed is through my employees… I have three other officers on this shift that are just as important as I am, if not more important. [They] are the most important part of this shift on patrol,” Sergeant Erwin said.

As the first college or university police agency in the state of Connecticut to be Internationally Accredited, The Central Connecticut State University Police Department can certainly hold its metaphorical head high. To be Internationally Accredited, a police agency must meet the standards of six major areas, those being law enforcement roles, responsibilities and relationships with other agencies; organization, management and administration; personnel administration; law enforcement operations; prisoner and court-related services; and auxiliary and technical services, according to the city Police Department of Mason, Oh. Web site.

Chief of Police and Director of Public Safety Jason B. Powell, in his welcome message on the CCSU Police Department’s Web site, said, “We are proud to announce that in 1999 we became the first university police department in Connecticut, and only the second in New England to achieve international recognition as an accredited police department. Within Connecticut, the Connecticut State Police, the UCONN Police and ten municipal police departments share this distinction.”

The CCSU Police Department understands that a major concern for parents of graduating high school students when choosing a college or university to send their children to is campus safety. To appeal to those concerns, Central Connecticut State University police officers are held to strict policies.

The department is staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year by intelligent and qualified officers who are able to communicate with and assist students and university staff. Closed circuit television (CCTV) and emergency telephones both allow the department to respond to a situation in a timely manner and give members of the University an overall awareness of safety. On top of this, emergency telephones are a useful tool in preventing crime or assisting those in danger. These phones can be found in various spots around the CCSU campus attached to large blue “Emergency” locators.

Parents can also be assured that fire alarms and emergencies are handled seriously and quickly. If an alarm sounds in a residence hall on campus, one is also set-off at the police department; CCSU police officers as well as “full time fire safety personnel” then report to the residence hall immediately to resolve the issue, if any, according to the CCSU Police Department’s Web site.

In keeping with their promise to maintain a safe learning environment, the police department’s Mission Statement reads that “[Their] primary role is to advance the mission of the University by helping to ensure a safe, healthy and stable work and learning environment for the University community. [They] will carry out this role in a manner that respects and protects the rights of all individuals to learn, create, grow, live, and work in an atmosphere of mutual respect. For [them], ‘quality’ not only reflects the kind of service [they] pledge to provide, but also describes the kind of life on campus [they] endeavor to protect.”

Officer-in-Training Jonathan Chung was offered a position as a police officer for the University while he worked at the Middletown Juvenile Correctional Facility. Chung said that he was excited to work with students and faculty on campus, but he also expressed concern.

“The more I know people here, the easier my job will be later on,” Chung said. “But I’m worried that a lot of older faculty members think we’re just security guards… but our uniforms and our cars say ‘Police.’”

Officer Hayes agreed. “A lot of people think we’re just a bunch of ‘wannabe’s’, but most of us are very highly trained. It’s not just a paycheck for some people; they want to make a difference and really help some people,” he said. “When you really get down to it, people don’t see ‘University Police’ on our uniforms and vehicles – they see ‘Police.’”