One Officer, Many Responsibilities
CEDAR FALLS, IOWA–Stacy Davis, a senior officer for the University of Northern Iowa Police Department, doesn’t just patrol around in her squad car for her whole shift, as one naïve student would think. She also checks calls, makes sure 
she knows of every university event happening during her shift, and teaches a self defense class. I rode with her at the beginning of her shift during parents weekend at UNI, but unfortunately (for my experience), nothing too exciting happened. Because of this, I wasn’t able to observe as much as I would have liked, but I did essentially get to have an hour long, personal interview with an officer.
My ride started at 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon as Davis was just starting her shift. I was able to spend a little more time in the office and get a feel for how the department is ran. Davis gave me a small tour of the offices in which I saw the records office, holding cell, and the dispatch room. The records office is the first place that an offender is brought into after an arrest; an officer proceeds to file paper work in here and breathalyze the offender if necessary. Next, I was shown the only holding cell in the department which looked pretty similar to holding cells at the Black Hawk County Jail. The cell had a camera in it, a small toilet, and a concrete bench. Nothing fancy. I also got to the see inside dispatch room. This was especially intriguing because it had multiple monitors in which the entire university campus was under twenty-four seven surveillance. Obviously, I know that UNI uses cameras for student safety, but actually seeing those cameras in place put a whole new perspective on my knowledge. I was even informed that I was on camera before entering the building when I had to use the call box to get into the building. This just proves the multiple discussions in class that almost all privacy is lost when dealing with law enforcement. Davis also said that the officers were once able to stop a car burglary by using the monitors in the dispatch room. The rest of the office was pretty quiet, as many of the other officers were stationed at the dome for dome safety and tailgating patrol.
After the short tour, Davis checked calls from the shift before hers to see if anything needed to be checked during her shift or if anything significant had happened earlier that day. She also looked through a thick binder in which it listed all the events going on during campus that night and which buildings needed to be locked and/or unlocked during her shift. When she was ready to go out to the car, she took with her a large duffel bag that looked like it had emergency supplies in it. Once in the car, the first thing I noticed was the stack of parking tickets in the door. I see many students complaining of getting a parking ticket, so I found it funny that the car had so many of them ready to go. I also noticed that a camera was positioned to monitor an any arrests being made, and an officer could also watch surveillance in the car. There were also multiple walkie-talkie’s and dispatch scanners, so Davis could hear information from not only the university officers but also the Cedar Falls officers.
Davis went onto describe the area that her department patrols and the boundaries to which the Cedar Falls police take over. It was surprising to me how little of a area the university police actually patrol. “The book store isn’t ours either,” said Davis when I asked her whether or not she has to patrol the Hill. The Hill is the responsibility of the Cedar Falls police, and Davis “won’t jump in unless its an emergency.” The university police do go out to the UNI practice soccer fields, but that is as far West as they will go, and they do not patrol over The Quarters.
When asked the most common offense dealt with by university police, Davis said that it would probably be public intoxication. “All these eighteen to nineteen year olds that are away from home for the first time just go crazy,” she explained. That rises into another problem underage college students have- fake id’s. However, Davis explained, “the last resort is to arrest them.” Arrests won’t be made unless the student is intentionally ruining property or hurting others. During the school year, the university police are also responsible for dorm safety. For example, if a student had a medical emergency in a dorm room, university police would need to be on the scene and ready to let ambulance workers into the correct building as efficiently as possible.
With law enforcement being brought up in the media quite frequently lately–and mostly for negative reasons–I thought I would ask Davis if she notices any negative effects within the university department. Her response caught me off guard. “We still get accused of being racist,” she said. I would think that working for a very diverse cultural university, that the these officers wouldn’t come across people who accused them of being racists. However, the entire university police department is white, so I can see where suspicions arise. Davis went on to explain that there is no one of color applying for positions, and with the negative stigma of becoming a police officer right now, positions aren’t necessarily open. With the negativity in the media, Davis said that she believes that police officers all over the nation are holding back on what they enforce. “If you’re doing your job right, then there shouldn’t be a problem,” she argued. One of her biggest fears is being put on social media in a negative way for her just doing her job. A part of just doing her job means that she has to be respectful to the offender no matter what the arrest is about; she has to be in control of her emotions at all times.
During my ride-along, I was also able to learn that Davis teaches a self defense class. This is one of the more rewarding aspects of her job because she isn’t looking to arrest someone but rather to teach others the importance of being able to protect yourself. She explained that she used to be way more shy than she is today, and she realized that she had a weakness that she wanted to improve on. She wanted to share this with other women in hopes to empower them as well. “When I teach women’s self defense, I see women feeling all badass.”
When I see a university police car drive past me, I immediately think that they are just lazily patrolling around not really do much of anything. I was definitely the naïve student before experiencing the ride-along. Davis and her team are doing what is in the best interest of students to keep them safe at all times, even if that means constantly patrolling. With so much crime happening all over the nation, it is relieving to know that the university has their own department to ensure the safety of students when Cedar Falls police are out on another job. “Don’t think that you are wasting our time if you call us. We’re here,” Davis said. No call is going to be left unanswered. This quote stuck with me, and I realized that I had transferred to a school that values the safety of its students as a top priority. With campus being so small, I appreciate the fact that the university police only have to focus on the safety of UNI faculty and students.
Journalism & Law 