Lenay Ruhl
Contributing Writer
Photo contributed by Danny McDonald
On Monday, Feb. 21 the third St. Petersburg police officer, in less than a month, was killed in the line of duty. This time, the shooting happened too close to home for some USF St. Petersburg students. On Tuesday morning as classes continued as scheduled, students received emails informing them that campus was included in the night long search for the killer. On Tuesday morning, that search continued.
“Students and employees should be aware that there could be significant police activity in the downtown area due to the ongoing search for the suspect,” warned an email sent out by Melanie Marquez, assistant director, news and information.
With a shooter loose and a heavy police presence on campus, attention was directed towards our own university police and the role they played in this search, as well their everyday role on campus.
All of the campus police are sworn police officers, and are required to continue training. Lt. Reginald Oliver has been a campus police officer for three years, and a St. Petersburg police officer for 26 years.
Their normal routine is to check campus buildings for secure doors and open those doors for faculty. “Night shift is the same except there is not as much activity,” Oliver said.
They respond to service calls and check suspicious persons on campus, issue trespass warnings for people who shouldn’t be on campus, investigate complaints and incidents.
“We have started conducting training with faculty on what they should do if confronted by an active shooter,” Oliver said. “We conducted training last month and we are looking at conducting training once a semester.”
The campus police currently train with the St. Petersburg Police Department for rapid response situations, such as an instance of a campus shooting, Oliver said. The campus police take the time to prepare faculty as well.
Ever since the shooting that occurred at Virginia Tech in 2007, many changes have been made to the campus for safety strategies. Aside from the blue light emergency phones, there are video cameras and lighting around campus. “Soon phones will be installed in the classrooms that will be linked to USF police directly,” Oliver said.
The campus remained opened on Tuesday, Feb. 22, because of information about the suspect’s alleged whereabouts. “There was no immediate threat and no ongoing situation which compromised the safety of the campus,” Oliver said. “The last direction the suspect was seen running was in the opposite direction of the campus.”
The university president ultimately makes the decision about whether to close the campus. “Officers locked down the campus and conducted a search of all the buildings, as the suspect location was unknown,” Oliver said. “We also assisted St. Petersburg [police] with checking the old Dali building. We stopped anyone walking in the area for identification.”
Oliver said students can take steps to promote safety on campus by reporting suspicious persons to university police, walk in pairs at night, become familiar with the locations of the blue light emergency phones on campus, and don’t leave valuables in cars.
“The most important thing is to be aware of your surroundings,” Oliver said. “Don’t take short cuts around campus that take you into obstructed areas or out of the sight of others.”
Oliver also said that students should have the university police’s phone number into their cell phones, which is 727-873-4140.
Students can also read about safety at the police website: www.stpete.usf.edu/police/crime_information/Crime_Prev_index.htm
