New leadership brings new solutions to old problems. This is the philosophy that new State Center Community College District Police chief Bruce Hartman is trying to implement in his position.
One of the problems Hartman is looking to tackle is the updating of the outdated website that students and faculty must use when looking for information on the police call logs and incident reports. Hartman says he is working with the I.T. department to upgrade the website and improve the tool for the use of the public.
“We want to refigure and redo the entire police webpage. And that way we can start updating and keeping information correct, ” Hartman said. “I’m looking to do it where it’s updated daily, and hoping to take it to the point of where it is even by shift to the point where it is within a couple of hours.”
The police log works as a tool for keeping track of crime statistics and a hard copy of the document is available at the district police station for students.
Also in the category of new technology Hartman is looking to start a program that allows students to install the LoJack theft recovery program on their computers. Hartman looks to start this program in the fall 2014 semester and informing students of it at the beginning of the upcoming school year.
“I’m trying to get that at a cut rate where we can get it over in the bookstore or make it available to students. If somebody steals your laptop then you notify them, all of your serial numbers are identified through them, we write a warrant and we go and get it,” Hartman said. “We’re going to probably start it up over the summer”
Hartman also looks to improve the transparency of the police department. This includes working with the press and trying to get more people involved in any new programs that the police will be putting into action.
FCC student Kevin Sa says a major issue that he has seen with the police force on campus is their visibility and personality in dealing with people.
Hartman looks to tackle this issue in the coming semesters by dispatching more officers on foot and implementing a bike patrol.
“You are going to see us on foot. You are going to see a lot more officers on foot especially on the mall way,” said Hartman. “We have bicycles. We’re going to put bicycles in place we just need to buy the emergency equipment and get a few [officers] into bike training.”
Hartman is also looking to make jobs available for students in the police office. These jobs would include opportunities in parking control, dispatch and the informational center. These jobs would be available to full-time students and would pay anywhere from $9 to $11 per hour.
“We’re going to be looking for dispatchers to train as a dispatcher to where they’ll actually be on the air. [They’ll] learn the alarm system both fire and theft, talking on the radio, dispatching officers just like a real police dispatcher,” Hartman said. “All these things will be experiences that they can take out into the real world with them.”
Making jobs available for students will be a step toward realizing Hartman’s idea of connecting the campus police to the students and the faculty. Another aspect of this plan is the idea to refer troublesome students to the psychological services office.
“We need to be on top of what is happening to make this the safest place possible,” Hartman said, “and when someone is acting out of character it’s taken care of immediately rather than ‘oh we’ll just throw him off the campus and the problem’s over with.’”
