Day shift with the security boys

Matthew Lewis
News Editor

My experience following campus security was uneventful but gave insight into the daily job of the officers that patrol our campus every day.  I shadowed Officer Hatcher for the majority of his shift starting at 2:30 p.m. on April 10.

Hatcher explained to me that Friday afternoons are the slowest shifts of every week. Being the Friday before a holiday weekend also made the campus more deserted than usual. The shift began with a patrol of campus on foot. Because it was an afternoon to evening shift, and most classes were empty for the day, part of the job on this patrol actually included the beginnings of securing campus for closing. While walking through the buildings almost every closed door was checked to make sure they were locked properly. Classrooms that were empty but the lights had been left on and the doors left open were shut off and closed up. During the walk through campus Officer Hatcher gave me some of his life and career background. He was originally from Elyria, but at age 11 moved with his family to West Virginia. He spent most of his school career there including college where he earned a bachelor’s in Criminal Justice from Fairmont University.  

“It was something I was always interested in,” Hatcher said.

After college, Hatcher returned to Northeast Ohio where some of his family members still lived. He said that he spent some time working with involuntary hospitalization, which provided him with the feeling that every day at work is a little different That feeling is what he likes about his job here on campus.

“You never know exactly what you’re going to get,” Hatcher said.

He explained that he once worked on an assembly line making wheelchairs, and that going into work knowing exactly what he was going to do, and how many chairs would be produced, made him anxious to get a job where every day was a new experience.

Walking through the top floor of Stocker Center I tripped on a piece of rug that had come unglued from the floor. Hatcher explained that worn or broken items like that, and other hazardous conditions, were reported by security to Physical Plant in condition reports to ensure that they know to fix it.

Hatcher explained that he has no current plans to leave his job here at the college, and likes the people he works with, but may take opportunities to move up or into a different department if they come along. Hatcher explained that one downside to working on Campus Security is that there is no way to move up within the office.

“What makes the job enticing can also make it difficult,” Hatcher said.

Hatcher explained, saying that the unpredictability that makes him like the job can also create difficult situations. He also pointed out that this is generally a quiet campus but the recent fire is an example of how quickly things can still come up.

Part of the patrol on foot took us through the tunnels, including part of the tunnel system that students have never been permitted in. After returning to the surface levels, a student stopped us to ask for the location of a pay phone.

Hatcher later explained that having the knowledge of the campus they do makes the officers prime candidates for information when people are lost or need to find something.

Hatcher said that he started working on campus in 1999 but did not have the same previous connection to campus that Security Director Keith Brown did when he started his job the same year.

He explained that he is a full time officer and that Campus Security attempts to keep at least one full time officer on campus at any given time.

According to Brown, there are 15 security officers hired at LCCC. “We have a total of six full time and nine part time [officers],” Brown said.

Part of the patrol took us into a stairwell the led to a roof access on the University Center where a large amount of graffiti has been found and is checked on a regular basis. \

Before the patrol was over I asked him about the amount of tickets given out on campus. He explained that it was a small part of every officer’s job to check for parking violations, but there are very few on his shift.
He also explained that tickets on campus are an effort to get people to follow the rules.

“Writing tickets here isn’t about filling the coffer,” Hatcher said. At 3:45 p.m. the walkthrough was done, and 15 minutes later we started a short mobile patrol.

The patrol took us around the outskirts of campus including down a small dirt trail to the cell phone tower on the Northeast corner of campus.

During the drive he pointed out parts of campus where people come through campus on off-road vehicles and mentioned incidents where people had flown small remote control airplanes as well as attempted to parasail on campus.

At 4:30, I finished my time with Officer Hatcher as the first area to be completely shut down for the day, the library, was secured.

Hatcher explained that it is the most difficult building to secure because of the multiple elevators and stairways.
After clearing the top floors, we took an elevator to the basement level and shut it off for the night. Even from this short and uneventful time with Campus Security, I was able to get a very clear insight to the work they do every day, and how much they can provide to students and campus users with the smallest problems. I also saw that both of our professions are exciting for the same reasons, and we may even have the same motives for doing them.