Alexandria Jones works for UPD as a dispatcher. She is a fellow Bull, having attended both USF Tampa and USF St. Petersburg. Courtesy of Alexandria Jones
By Juliet Di Preta
Alexandria Jones, 29, is the honorary officer of the week. She has worked in dispatch at the University Police Department as a communications specialist for five years.
Before joining the team at USF. St. Petersburg, she worked for the Tampa Police Department. Seeking a slower law enforcement work environment is what brought her to the ‘Burg.
“My godmother worked for Orlando Police for 25 years and after I graduated undergrad and needed money, she suggested I take the test for a dispatch position and the rest is history,” Jones said.
A career at UPD isn’t what Jones is seeking as her end game, though.
“Working in police dispatch wasn’t a goal of mine. It was more or less a job – like a stepping stone really,” she said.
Jones received her undergraduate degree in mass communications from USF Tampa and earned her master’s degree last month in digital journalism with a certificate in food writing and photography from USF St Petersburg. She launched her blog, “The Frugalista Life,” in February, and has big dreams for it as it grows.
“My ultimate goal in life is to work for myself and have my blog make money,” Jones said. “Or I would like to be a personality on a cooking show or a food network.”
While her coworkers and the officers at UPD will miss her when she’s a big star, they support her dreams to move on to other things.
“They were actually really supportive when I was in school, and then I was actually on TV back in May on Tampa Bay Morning Blend for my blog,” Jones said. “My supervisor actually watched it. He put it on his DVR, so I was really excited about that.”
Jones believes that it is important to humanize the police force on campus.
“I like being able to show the students that ‘Hey, we’re not out to get you and we’re not here to scare you,’” she said. “Plus, there’s not a lot of us. You’ll see the same faces, and you’ll get used to them and you’ll get to know them on a personal level where you feel comfortable going up to them.”
Jones wants students on campus to know that if you call with an emergency, everything will be OK.
