Correction Appended
University police are dedicated to community-oriented law
enforcement, and one of the ways their goal might be achieved on a
college campus is by having former students police current
students.
Around one-fifth of the nearly 60 officers at UCPD were once
Bruins themselves, and some of them say their blue-and-gold blood
enhances their abilities on the job.
“When a crime occurs on campus, you take it a little more
personally than you would with a larger organization,” said
Lieutenant John Adams, adding that he feels he has a pretty good
pulse on the campus.
Adams started working for university police as a community
service officer in 1983, while he was still in school. He had been
working as a waiter before that and said the change was
appealing.
“No one day was the same; it was exciting. You’re
patrolling around. You are the eyes and ears of the campus,”
he said.
Now, after spending over 20 years with the force, he said his
feelings haven’t changed much, and he enjoys being more
connected with the community.
“In a city, people are moving, businesses leave, and
relationships are not as personal,” Adams wrote in an
e-mail.
Officer Rob Syto, who graduated with a degree in philosophy in
2002, said one of the best parts of work is building relationships,
and one of the hardest parts of becoming a police officer is
knowing the area where you are working.
He said university alumni may be better informed about their
locality.
Heidi Milton, a fourth-year psychology student, agreed that
alumni officers can relate to students, because their personalities
and lifestyles while they were in school are as diverse as aspects
of students’ lives today.
University police said their alumni are a nice addition to the
force.
“These officers are a unique asset to our department,
because they have the experience as students,” said Acting
UCPD Police Chief Karl Ross.
The officers have lived at UCLA, and they know a lot about
student issues, Ross said. He added that some of the same features
that attract students to UCLA also attract officers.
“It’s a great learning experience, it’s a
beautiful place to be,” Ross said. “This is just one
way that they give back to the community.”
Syto, who is from Camario, originally planned to join the
seminary. He showed up at his dad’s house in 1995 after
deciding to pursue a different lifestyle.
He said he left because he wasn’t allowed to have a
serious girlfriend while in college seminary.
He then worked at Chevron for a while, and his father suggested
he become a police officer.
Syto started working for the Los Angeles Police Department in
1995, and entered as a student at UCLA in 1996. He ended up leaving
his work at the LAPD and UCLA in 1999 to follow his girlfriend, who
is now his wife, to Northern California.
There, he worked for UC Berkeley’s police and took some
classes there.
To graduate, Syto had to commute between Berkeley and UCLA once
a week during a summer session.
“I was a super, super, super, senior,” Syto said,
laughing, admitting he started school at UCLA in 1996 and graduated
in 2002.
He came back to work at UCLA when his wife started her medical
residency at UC San Diego.
Syto said the worst part of the job is when people get upset at
him for giving them a $300 ticket.
“It’s not a “˜cool thing’ to give someone
a ticket,” he said, adding that he believes it is a necessary
evil that can help change a person’s behavior.
Officer Clydine Crowder, a 27-year veteran, echoed Syto, noting
that an officer most often interacts with people when they are in
tough situations.
“We’re never associated with any happy experience in
anyone’s life. We’re always associated with
people’s bad memories,” Crowder said. “You just
try to help them through the bad times.”
Crowder graduated from UCLA in 1978 and studied political
science and public law. She said she had always wanted to be a
police officer, even before it was customary for women to be on the
force.
In college, Crowder was one of the original CSOs ““ which
was called the escort service ““ and was the only woman.
“They actually didn’t want to hire me. They said
that would defeat the purpose of escorting around
campus.”
In 1979, she was again the only woman in her class at the police
academy, but said she wasn’t worried about handling it
because she was physically fit.
“I came here to UCLA on a track scholarship,”
Crowder said. She ran the 400 meter hurdles.
“I was in good shape, I figured there wouldn’t be
any problem in that aspect of it,” she said.
Crowder said she plans to retire in two years, and she is
probably going to travel the country in her motor home and work on
obedience and agility training with her cocker spaniel dogs.
Correction: May 6, 2004, Thursday.
In “A blue-and-gold shield”, the city of
Camarillo’s name was misspelled.