I Did A Ride Along With Campus Public Safety

Reported By: Sam Erickson

Photographed By: Yolanda Diaz

It is a typical Friday night and, as everyone settles into their groups in the lobby of a freshman dorm at George Fox University (GFU), a student marches in and declares, “Are they gonna give me a ticket if I park there?” then turns and points to their car parked in the now empty staff parking lot. The ‘they’ the student was referring to was, of course, Campus Public Safety (CPS), with whom most students do not interact outside of the occasional ticket on their car or an awkward phone call after locking themselves out of their rooms. I set up a ride-along with one of their student officers to see what goes on behind the scenes at CPS.

As I walked into the CPS office on the east side of campus, student officer and freshman Caleb Rickman (the student officer I was going to shadow) walked out of the office at practically the same time. 

“We have to go to Newlin,” he told me, and I immediately thought I was about to experience the best ride-along in GFU history. It turned out to be a false alarm in the elevator, which, I learned, happens a lot.

Rickman explained to me how their alarm system works, and said that when someone hits an alarm (fire, emergency call box, or otherwise), it goes to a company called Central Station Monitoring. The call is answered by trained professionals, who, after determining whether the authorities need to be called, call CPS. We were going to respond to the Newlin elevator crisis because it wasn’t actually a crisis. That was disappointing from a journalist perspective, but probably good from all other perspectives. 

The best part of the drive was hands-down the Lego-cube-shaped Scion xB that CPS drives around campus. If you heard its engine roar on the hill without knowing it was barely moving at all, you might be tricked into thinking it could function as a car. When I asked Rickman how it handles the more off-road sections of its route (like the Austin Sports Complex), he replied,  “It does all right.” It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that his remark was sarcastic. 

The impressive thing about my ride-along was Rickman’s commitment to his job. He methodically showed me every section of campus, while explaining his perspective on the hardest part of his job (to him, it was having the uncomfortable conversation of asking people who aren’t supposed to be on campus to leave campus). 

He started the year as just a ticketer– he walked around the parking lots writing warnings and tickets– then recently started at the position he has now, which allows him to drive the Scion and handle more serious issues. 

Truthfully, this story was originally going to be about whether we should even have students as officers for CPS. The idea seemed foreign and, frankly, concerning that students could have that power. However, after riding with Rickman, my.opinion has shifted. It is incredible how little we as students see what CPS does. They have detailed reports that make your head spin (Rickman wrote a report of our ride-along immediately after we finished). They have the tools to unlock your car if you get locked out, and they have the tools to start it if it dies. Yes, CPS, like any authority on campus, will continue to be the butt-end of jokes. However, maybe  these jokes should come from a place of respect.