Police Chief James Overton and the UMB campus police have established a Police Cadet Internship similar to a program Overton ran at Delaware State University (DSU). The internship, for which the application deadline is Oct. 12, will require selected students to work 150 hours in addition to training during the spring 2012 semester.
Overton explained that DSU got the idea from the University of Maryland in 2001 and that “[t]he program was successful.” “I think it will work well here too,” Overton said. “It’s mostly about student outreach, students get to see the inner workings of the station, and it is a great résumé builder.”
Overton stated that they are currently favoring applicants that are criminal justice majors but as interest grows so will campus police accommodations. “For instance when I left Delaware most of our student cadets were nursing students,” Overton said.
Accepted applicants will receive training in basic police procedure. Soon-to-be cadets will take a class in the art of verbal judo, which is described as the ability to de-escalate a situation through conversation. Cadets will also receive training in: defensive tactics, booking process, CPR and automated external deliberator use, parking enforcement, building searches, and report writing.
Alyx Strong, coordinator of the Student Cadets, said that cadets would be active as early as next spring. They will be patrolling areas, reporting suspicious activity, providing safety escort services,” she said, “and, if necessary, assisting in searches for missing persons.”
Student Cadets will not have any police powers but are considered to be force multipliers. Overton described them as being “[campus police’s] eyes and ears.”
Another way campus police are involving students in public safety is by offering Community Emergency Response Training (C.E.R.T). The cadets will be the first to undergo this training, but soon after, it will be offered as a class that any student interested will be able to enroll in.
Richard Lee, assistant coordinator of public safety, explained that C.E.R.T. classes will instruct students on subjects of awareness, basic first aid, disaster preparedness, light search, and psychological first aid. “We would, of course, want to keep students out of immediate danger,” Lee said. “To that effect, C.E.R.T. students would be employed in low risk tasks. For instance ‘light search’ could mean assisting with finding a missing child.”
Lee also clarified the meaning of “psychological first aid” saying that portion of the training “will teach students to recognized shell-shocked people. “They will learn to notice distress characteristics of others,” he said. “Students will learn how best to talk to these victims and guide them to safety.”
The Emergency Management Department is engaging with student leaders to raise the level of student involvement in public safety and disaster recovery.
USG Director of Student Safety Matthew Poirier has been working closely with Emergency Management and Continuity Planning Coordinator Anne-Marie McLaughlin to plan an emergency preparedness exercise.
McLaughlin described the exercise as being designed both to inform students about UMB’s response plans and to help students develop plans of their own. It is still in the planning phases, but Poirier has been meeting with student group leaders, trying to raise interest, and getting as many representatives as possible of the student body involved.
“This is about getting student participation and student input,” McLaughlin said, describing the mindset participants should have. “I want people to come interested and ready to participate. Keep in mind: very often, in a real emergency, there is little advance warning. We want to put people in that position of having to think quickly about what they might do-or not do.”
