University police say students are priority
Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) wants to ensures that safety remains a priority in order to maintain a secure and enjoyable environment for students to work, learn and live.
TAMUK is a public campus, and legally anyone can step onto its property. Because of this TAMUK has no barriers to keep individuals out, such as walls, fences or security guards to go through when entering.
If an unknown individual comes onto campus and the situation makes students, faculty or staff feel unsafe, they can call UPD and officers will find out if the individual is a student or not. If not, UPD can ask them to leave, and if they choose not to, they might use force.
Students are encouraged to call UPD at any time of day, if they need assistance.
“We’re here to serve the community in the best way we can and have that open communication to get that done and make sure we’re successful,” Chief of Police Julian Cavazos said.
For students, faculty and staff who have been impacted by recent events like the Uvalde shooting, UPD hosts an active shooter training course called “Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE).” CRASE is a voluntary, one hour course that teaches students, faculty and staff how they should act and what to do in case an active shooter situation occurs.
Individuals interested in taking the course, can contact UPD to put in a request. Depending on what parties are interested in taking the course together, UPD will have an officer available to instruct the course.
Chief of Police Cavazos stated that although CRASE is meant to provide training, each situation is going to dictate something different depending on where someone is when it occurs, if there is a phone accessible and how someone will instinctively react.
Once a concern is reported, UPD can choose to send a notification to departments on campus to update them in a serious situation so potential concerns can be addressed.
“We will send it to whoever needs to be addressed in order to look at it from every aspect. Everybody that needs to get involved gets involved to ensure the safety of our students on campus. We’ll send out emails, phone calls, whatever it takes,” Cavazos said.
There is a mass notification system in place to report about ongoing incidents to the students, faculty, staff and community. UPD sends out a notification with this system as well as all clear notifications once an incident has been resolved.
“This semester I look forward to better communication from the school to the students. When something happens, I often hear about it from a friend first rather than the school,” Senior music education major David De La Rosa.
As new Chief of Police, Cavazos has plans to look into the timeliness of alert notifications and talk to media personnel regarding the use of social media by UPD in cooperation with the mass alert system to send out information as quickly as possible.
Last semester, students made efforts to raise awareness against sexual assault on campus. If an assault meets the definitions of the law, it will then be recorded in the Clery log. UPD officers are in constant communication with compliance to ensure that whatever needs to be in the log is recorded. As mentioned by an investigator, Clery logs do not have to be updated online, but only in physical records.
The Clery log is a record of reported crimes on campus.
“We will make sure students are educated on what is and what is not an offense. Students can report to the compliance office, but they don’t have to report to UPD if they don’t want to. The best way to know is to ask, even if it’s a question regarding the law, that’s what we’re here for,” Cavazos said.
UPD’s office is open week days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. if students would like to speak with an officer.
“The students have great resources in any of our officers because we have the experience,” Patrol Sergeant Gabriel Gonzalez said.
Many of the officers working with UPD are retired from different agencies and go into working with the university with Master Peace Officer Licenses.
“I want to be more out there and readily available to our students. I don’t want them to be afraid of us,” Gonzalez said.
UPD’s goal this semester is to be more readily available and have more training and interactions with students, faculty and staff.
“We’re here to help them in whatever situation and answer questions not just in law, but in life too. We are in a teaching environment, we are part of the process and have a lot to offer our students,” Gonzalez said.
For more information regarding safety protocol on campus visit https://www.tamuk.edu/upd/index.html or call UPD at (361) 593-2611.