ByJason D. Gibson

The Missouri University of Science and Technology Police Department has played an important role to the Missouri S&T campus community and indirectly to the city of Rolla since its earliest inception as a watchmen service in 1952.

The Missouri University of Science and Technology Police Department came into existence in 1971. Prior to that year, the department was called the Traffic Safety & Security Department. The Traffic Safety & Security Department in the 1950's and early '60's consisted initially of one full-time employee whose primary duty was to enforce University parking regulations on campus parking lots. This employee worked during the normal daytime operating hours of the University and doubled as a chauffeur for Curtis L. Wilson, Dean of the School of Mines at the time. This employee was not commissioned, uniformed, or armed.

In the spring of 1967, the University hired its first full-time police officer. It is important to note that from this point on the University began commissioning employees of the Traffic Safety & Security Department as police officers. The commissioned personnel of the Traffic Safety & Security Department were both uniformed and armed. The uniforms of the day looked similar to that of a conservation agent, which consisted of green pants and a light gray shirt. The officers were armed with .38 caliber S&W revolvers.

Over the next year and a half, three more police officers were hired by the University. The focus of the police officers during this time period was primarily building security and traffic enforcement on campus. In 1968, several more officers were hired as a result of tensions being raised on American college campuses because of the unpopular Vietnam War.

On November 15, 1968, Kelly Gibbons, a former FBI agent, was hired as the new Chief of the Traffic Safety & Security Department. The department consisted of six officers and approximately a dozen non-commissioned watchmen at this time. Chief Gibbons was succeeded by Chief Richard Boulware in 1975, and Chief Boulware was succeeded by Chief Bill Bleckman in 1991.

Origins of the University watchmen date back to about 1952, and were originally part of the University's Physical Facilities Department. Some of their original duties were to check boilers, the steam tunnels, and the buildings themselves for safety hazards. Ernst L. Hendricks, Superintendant of Buildings and Grounds, was over the Watchmen at least part of this time. Ray Matney, lead supervisor under Hendricks, had direct responsibilities over the Watchmen.

Gradually the watchmen took on more and more security oriented duties. In March of 1967, the watchmen were transferred from the control of the Physical Facilities Department to the Traffic Safety & Security department, and John Tryon took over as supervisor over the department. The department was located in building T-12 at the corner of Park and 11th Streets. Around 1976, the "Watchman" title was changed to that of Security Guard.

When construction started on the University Center East, T-12 was razed and Traffic Safety & Security was moved in 1970 to building T-27 located west of the Chancellor's House and south of TKE fraternity located on State St. In December 1986, the department moved to the Health, Information, and Security (H.I.S.) building located at the southeast corner of 14th and Bishop Ave. When construction on the Havener Center began in Jan 2003, the department was moved to the General Services building located north of I-44.

In 1971, the Traffic Safety & Security Department began operating on a 24 hour basis, 365 days per year. Gradually the primary focus of the Department shifted to include duties similar to their municipal counterparts. This new focus included the protection of people and property in addition to enforcement of University regulations, state laws, and ordinances. The university has approximately 5,400 students, 1,500 employees, and many visitors each day. It has experienced a 30% growth in the number of buildings and square footage in the decade between 1984 and 1994, and is expecting considerable growth in the future. With a "small city" atmosphere, the department needed to provide professionalism the campus citizens expected.

Druing the late '60s and early '70s, the University of Missouri System took measures to professionalize each of the campus police departments. Some of these changes included raising the minimum educational requirements from a high school diploma to two years of college. In addition, University police officers were now required to complete law enforcement training through a state certified police academy.

The most recent change to the University Police Department occurred in 1992, when the Department created the Campus Service Officer program. This program was originally created for two purposes. The first purpose was to establish a student escort service. The second purpose was to give the department more personnel in some of its routine functions such as maintaining security foot patrols on campus, assisting with special event coverage, and helping to enforce parking lot regulations.

The program has had mixed success since its inception and therefore had two distinct developmental stages. It became apparent early on that the student escort service was not being utilized by the campus community so the CSO program began placing more emphasis on building security and lock-up functions. The second developmental stage involved cutting back on security functions and using the CSO's for radio dispatching to help relieve personnel shortages in the department. Throughout both of these developmental stages, the CSO's have remained an important part to the day to day operations of the University Police Department.

Currently, the University Police Department is composed of 19 full-time employees, including 11 sworn officers, 6 security guards/dispatchers, and two secretarial staff members. In addition to the department's full-time personnel, the department employs 14 students who work on a part-time basis as Campus Service Officers. The command structure of the sworn personnel includes the police chief, three sergeants, and seven patrol officers. Each sergeant is charged with the supervision of one of the 3 eight-hour shifts. There are usually one to three police officers on duty at a time. The uniforms resembling a conservation agent were replaced by the department in 1974 in favor of a blue Missouri Highway Patrolman's style uniform and the officers are now armed with .40 caliber semiautomatic pistols.

The role of the University Police Department is best summed up in its mission statement:

"The mission of the University Police Department is to support the campus community in fulfilling its commitment to teaching, research, and service by providing a safe and secure environment for students, employees, and campus visitors through the prevention of crime and enforcement of state and local laws and University rules and regulations."

In order to achieve this mission, functions of the department include selective patrol, education of the campus citizen to the threat of crime, investigation of crimes, apprehension of criminals, and advising individuals and departments on security. In addition to its primary mission statement, the department carries out several secondary missions which include enforcement of traffic safety regulations, traffic and crowd control at special activities, guard and escort of university funds and personnel, and provision of telephone switchboard services during nonworking hours."

Other services the University Police provide include property registration and engraving, bicycle registration, a lost and found service, crime prevention programs, an emergency locator service, fingerprinting, a vehicle lock-out service, a call-in service when physical facilities problems are noticed by Department personnel, a 24-hour key control for distributing University keys to authorized individuals, electronic surveillance of reported problem areas or high crime areas, monitoring of burglar alarms in key areas, and monitoring of the emergency phone system. The University Police Department in addition to its primary functions is indeed a "catch-all" for virtually any type of situation or problem that a member of the campus community can not solve on his/her own.

The authority and jurisdiction of the University of Missouri police officers is often misunderstood and confused by both the common public and members of the campus community itself. It is commonly asked by citizens whether a University police officer is a "real" police officer with powers of arrest, or in fact, simply a security guard. The second question often asked of University police officers concerns what their jurisdiction actually is. The question is usually phrased "can a University police officer stop and arrest someone they see breaking the law off campus?" The answer to both of these questions is "yes."

The Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1996, specifically sections 172.350 and 172.355, provide the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri "with the same authority to maintain order, preserve peace and make arrests as is now held by peace officers." The above statutes in effect gives University police officers jurisdiction on all University of Missouri property throughout the state of Missouri, which currently totals over 20,000 acres.

University police officers are authorized to enforce state laws and University rules and regulations under this statute. This statute does not empower University police officers to act as peace officers in an off-campus situation, unless it is a "fresh pursuit" situation. A "fresh pursuit" situation is where the crime occurred on University property and the perpetrator was pursued off campus by University police officers. In this case, the arrest of the perpetrators would be lawful.

In March of 1989, under an agreement between Chief Boulware and Rolla Police Chief Mike Snavely, University police officers became commissioned through the city of Rolla as reserve patrol officers. Rolla City Ordinances allow for up to sixteen reserve officers, of which ten of the slots are filled by University police officers. This second commission gave University police officers the same authority and jurisdiction within the city limits of Rolla as regular full-time city police officers. This second commission also gave University police officers the option of citing a lawbreaker either through the city ordinances or through the state of Missouri.

The University of Missouri was also recently given the authority to establish its own set of traffic laws modeled after the general motor vehicle laws established by the state legislature. The specific section pertaining to this added authority is found under Section 172.745, RSMo:

"For the purpose of promoting public safety, health and general welfare and to protect life and property, the board of curators of the state university may establish regulations to control vehicular traffic, including speed regulations, on any thoroughfare owned or maintained by the state university and located within any of its campuses. Such regulations shall be consistent with the provisions of the general motor vehicle laws of this state."

Violations of any of these University traffic regulations are punishable the same as a violation of a city or county ordinance as is detailed in Section 172.749, RSMo:

"Violations of any regulation established under Section 172.745 shall have the same effect as a violation of municipal ordinances adopted pursuant to Section 304.120, RSMo, with penalty provisions as provided in Section 304.570, RSMo. Points assessed against any person pursuant to Section 302.302, RSMo, for a violation of Section 172.745 shall be the same as provided for a violation of a county or municipal ordinance."

Although violation of a University traffic regulation is given the same impact as a violation of a city or county ordinance as granted by the above statutes, the Missouri University of Science and Technology Police Department has not yet utilized it. Currently, when a University police officer issues a University Traffic Violation Notification, it is handled as strictly an administrative affair where the student or staff/faculty member pays a small fine to the University and no other punishment is received. Appeals of a University Traffic Violation Notification are made to the Parking, Security and Traffic Committee which is comprised of faculty, staff, and student representatives.

University police officers also reserve the right to cite anyone breaking a state traffic law on campus property as if it occurred out on a public roadway. The statute is found under Section 172.743:

"All motor vehicles operated upon any thoroughfare owned or maintained by the state university and located within any of its campuses shall be subject to the provisions of the general motor vehicle laws of this state, including chapters 301, 302, 303, 304, 307 and 577, RSMo. Violations shall have the same effect as though such had occurred on public roads, streets or highways of this state."

The types of crime which occur at Missouri S&T are wide ranging. The University Police respond to hundreds of calls every year ranging from peace disturbances to suspicious individuals to physical assaults. The University has compiled crime statistics since 1972 which in turn have been reported to the Missouri State Highway Patrol since 1989.

Crime at Missouri S&T is as wide ranging as that found in any small municipality. The University Police Department must therefore be prepared and trained to deal with the same types of crime that any small municipal police agency would deal with. In addition to this responsibility, the University Police Department must be cognizant of the sophisticated environment in which it operates.

University Police officers are required to satisfy the same state training requirements, Police Officers Standards and Training (POST), to become a certified law enforcement officer as is every other law enforcement agency in the state of Missouri. Currently this minimum training requirement is 470 hours of basic training at a state certified police academy.

In addition to the police academy training, University police officers must have a minimum two years of college education or equivalent work experience to be even considered for the job. Most other police agencies, including the Rolla Police Department, require only a high school diploma. University police officers receive numerous hours of training throughout the year, including firearms training twice per year, annual CPR/first aid certifications, annual police baton certifications, diversity training, monthly training on recent court decisions affecting law enforcement issues, domestic violence training, gang training, and many other training topics.

The University Police Department is a civil force and is civilian in nature. However, the demands for proficiency and professionalism required that the department structure itself as a quasi-military organization. Therefore the department developed similar regulations that structure other law enforcement agencies. These regulations set up a quasi-military command structure and contained stringent expectations of department members. The regulations provide for an internal system of discipline and a command structure suited to the unique demands of both the University and police department environment.

The University Police Department has become a leader of local law enforcement agencies, with many firsts that were later duplicated by surrounding departments. The University Police Department was the first agency in the county to recognize the importance of computers and how much they could improve operations. In 1985, the Department was the first to begin computerizing all police reports and other key departmental information allowing accurate and near-instantaneous access to records which before was cumbersome at best. The Department began utilizing a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer in the investigation of crimes in 1995 and was the third university police department in the nation to do so. Local agencies have made use of the University Police Department's CVSA trained personnel and equipment in their own investigations of crime. The Department was also the first law enforcement agency in the state of Missouri to establish its presence on the World Wide Web which is part of the Internet.

The comparison has been made several times of the University Police Department being equivalent to a small municipal police agency. While there is truth in this statement to the effect that the University Police Department is a full-service police agency, there is also a significant difference between the University Police Department and its municipal counterpart, the Rolla Police Department, that needs to be mentioned. The following is a paragraph written by Michael Clay Smith from page 101 of his book entitled Crime and Campus Police: A Handbook for Police Officers and Administrators:

"Campus security efforts require the best of modern police technique. At the same time, campus police differ from their off-campus police counterparts in one fundamental way. Because of the size of their jurisdictions and numbers of citizens, municipal, county, and state police must necessarily concentrate efforts on law enforcement -- that is, apprehension and prosecution of criminal violators. Because of their more concentrated and specialized province, campus police, on the other hand, have avoidance and prevention of crime as their fundamental goal. A good reputation for safety and security is of far greater worth to an institution of higher education than proficiency of sending people to jail."

The University Police Department has developed from an agency whose original purpose in 1952 was to keep an eye on University of Missouri campus buildings for problems such as water or steam leaks, to a full service professional law enforcement agency which has the respect of the law enforcement community as being on the cutting edge of technology and police practices. The University Police Department has provided many valuable services to the University and will continue to be an integral part of the campus community.