For all the graduate students who dreamed of being Batman when they were young, the chance may soon come to live out their childhood fantasies: biology TA by day, crime stopper by night.
Clarence Birkhead, chief of police of the Duke University Police Department, said the University is currently looking at a number of options to increase the visiblity of security personnel on campus--an ongoing initiative that received particular attention after a student was robbed, presumably at gunpoint, at an ATM in the Bryan Center Nov. 30. Among the possibilities under consideration is the initiation of graduate student patrols at night.
"We are reviewing all our options in employing individuals to assist with an increased security visibility effort," Birkhead said. "If graduate students are interested in giving back to the community while being paid to do so, we need to consider them as an option. It may be a pool we haven't looked at in the past, so it could be an untapped resource we could use to fill some non-confrontational security positions."
In an e-mail forwarded to graduate students via the Office of Graduate Student Affairs, Birkhead asked that interested students contact DUPD. Graduate students would be paid $10 per hour to "provide increased security visibility in the form of vehicle patrol or stationary assignments throughout campus" during evening hours, between 6 p.m. and 4:30 a.m.
Although the program under consideration has not drawn overwhelming interest from graduate students, Birkhead said a few have contacted his department about the positions. "The fact that we do have some interest is a good sign," he said.
Kemel Dawkins, vice president for campus services, noted that the use of students to augment security patrols is a tactic other universities have employed in the past. "Students, particularly graduate students, have been involved in providing security in other places. They are not necessarily on patrols, and their roles may be as simple as providing building security, locking doors, serving as eyes and ears and radio contact around campus, or providing escort assistance."
The University of Carolina at Chapel Hill is among those universities that have used student patrols for a number of years, said Derek Poarch, director of UNC's department of public safety. He noted that UNC's student patrols include undergraduate students.
Although Birkhead said the University was not currently considering undergraduates as possible patrollers, Dawkins said the option was not ruled out entirely.
Poarch said the student patrollers at UNC are trained on such basics as eyewitness identification, how to call in information over the radio and what to look for on their patrols, but that they do not take action when they see something suspicious.
"They have radios with which they can communicate with our dispatch center, but the students have no law enforcement capacity, and their uniforms clearly distinguish them as student patrollers," Poarch said. "They just contact our communications center and we send police officers."
Birkhead said DUPD would similarly provide training for patrollers at Duke, should the program be put in place. "Anyone we hire will be trained in what to look for and how to respond if they do encounter situations of suspicious nature," Birkhead said.
Alex Niejelow, Duke Student Government vice president for facilities and athletics, said the idea of using graduate students to patrol seems sound, as long as the patrollers are properly trained.
"Proper training is more than just how to use a radio," he said. "They would need to know how to drive a University vehicle, how to give a good description of somebody and a reason they were suspicious. There's always a sense in a community of whom the police are picking to stop and why they're stopping them. It can't just be that the hair on their back rises up."
Niejelow noted that the University will also have to keep in mind that students are not necessarily as reliable as other personnel. "Both undergraduates and graduate students have huge time commitments, and extracurriculars can easily be put on the backburner," he said.
The University is also considering other options that could increase the visibility of security personnel on campus. Birkhead said DUPD may contract out with a security service, or may hire on more permanent personnel within the department. The latter option could prove difficult, however, as the region is currently experiencing a shortage of officers to hire--an issue with which the University will have to deal as it tries to recruit officers to support extended patrols off East Campus.
"Typically what universities and other entities do is have some mix of policing that is provided by a police force and security that is provided by some security company," Dawkins said. Currently, the DUPD has 50 sworn officers, 63 security officers and 30 support staff.
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