It is one thing to ride along with Public Safety on a Friday night in hopes of witnessing an exciting event on Fairfield’s campus.
However, it is quite another thing to have to report with Public Safety to your own house when they are responding to a call.
It was all in a night’s work for Fairfield’s Public Safety officers.
To find out how and why Public Safety always seems to be lurking in the shadows at all the wrong times, I decided to take part in a student ride-along experience on Nov. 11. I tagged along with Sergeant John Ritchie for a typical Friday night out – Public Safety style.
The Night’s Events
11:03 p.m. I begin my night by cruising around campus at the very legal speed of 20 miles per hour. We spot a few students on our left who are walking along the curb near Campion, yet nothing about their behavior warrants action.
As we continue driving around the entire campus, Ritchie discusses the mindset of officers who are on duty on a typical Friday or Saturday night. Their primary job is to look for anything that looks suspicious. Officers think about what looks normal versus abnormal at 12 a.m., according to Ritchie.
11:17 p.m. Assistance is requested on the radio speaker for officer Ritchie and me to report to a townhouse fire alarm. Coincidentally, the fire alarm turns out to be at my house, as the result of some “burnt popcorn” that my roommate left unattended in the microwave for a few minutes.
It is a huge embarrassment to receive a call to go to my house, and it is something that the officers do not let me forget for the entire night.
11:32 p.m. As we pull into the Kostka/Claver parking lot, we notice a bunch of students hanging out on the stairwell in a very visible view of the Public Safety vehicle. As Ritchie walks toward them, the students scurry into a nearby room.
After we arrive at the room, alcohol is found. One of the students attempts to take the blame by stating that he randomly walked into the room without knowing the residents. Ritchie does not buy it, and he writes up the whole room since more alcohol is found inside.
12:07 a.m. A call is received about a possibly intoxicated student who is lying down on the sidewalk near Alumni Hall. As we arrive at the scene, another officer says the girl is in need of a ride home.
12:14 a.m. As Ritchie and I pass Regis’s parking lot, Ritchie automatically spots two people darting behind a tree. Ritchie’s “eagle-eyes” find two students who are engaging in what I will refer to as “promiscuous behavior.” After speaking with both students, Ritchie tells me that the woman is a non-resident who is visibly intoxicated.
This situation gets serious as the officers try to figure out if this is a consensual act. Both students are referred to the Regis resident assistant to discuss the choices they are making as students of a Jesuit institution. They are not written up.
12:55 a.m. We receive word of a possible brawl on the fourth floor of Regis. As soon as we enter the building, we see about 50 male students. Ritchie gets a large amount of information about the fight from male students in the lobby.
We walk up to the fourth floor where the brawl was reported to have occurred. We make our way throughout the entire building in hopes of catching a word or hearing other witnesses explain what they saw.
1:15 a.m. With no luck of further information, Ritchie and I leave Regis, concluding my night’s adventure with Public Safety.
Lessons Learned
My two-hour career as a Public Safety officer had finally ended for the night, and I left with a vast array of information.
Rule 1: Do not run from Public Safety once they see you. Darting up the stairs in numbers or trying to hide behind trees simply does not work. It is too suspicious.
Rule 2: There are a lot of bad liars on this campus. Trying to admit that the alcohol in the bag is yours without remembering the color of the bag, or claiming that someone is your girlfriend without knowing what town she is from does not look so believable. Public Safety officers are not dumb.
Rule 3: If you are planning to run around outside at midnight with bulging backpacks on, or if you are planning to engage in some sort of promiscuous behavior at 12 a.m., get ready to be caught.
Keeping the Peace
“Our job is a misconception that we are out to catch people. Rather, it’s more about maintaining order and safety on campus,” said Ritchie.
Yes, they have to issue parking tickets and alcohol violations. But the majority of their actions are meant to prevent out-of-hand situations from escalating and endangering others.
“The majority of what we do…is for the student’s benefit,” said Ritchie. “We try to be proactive and prevent a dangerous situation before it occurs.”
Occasionally, they do give students a break.
As we walked through the halls of Regis, Ritchie noted the noise he could hear within various student dorm rooms. Since it was past quiet hours, he told me that he had every right to knock on each door.
But Ritchie did not knock on a single door.
Leave a Reply