With the beginning of the fall 2016 semester just days away, Moorpark College faculty and staff prepare not only their coursework, but safety and emergency preparedness as well.
On Friday morning, Lieutenant Greg Beckley led a presentation for staff and faculty stressing the important role that every member of the campus community plays in campus safety.
“If you see something strange on campus, please make [the campus police] aware,” said Beckley.
Recounting an incident when someone drove their car onto Raider Walk before entering a building and making loud, threatening statements for several hours before leaving, Beckley stated that no one alerted campus police during that incident.
Silvia Barajas, Vice President of Business Services, chimed in to reiterate the importance of ‘see something, say something.’
“Sometimes we see a car on Raider Walk and we think, ‘Oh that’s okay,’” said Barajas. “It really isn’t okay. If there are things that don’t look right, sound right, those are things we need to get used to reporting.”
Campus police can also be made aware of non-emergency situations by using a free app called TipNow. The app allows users to anonymously report all kinds of situations including bullying, theft, depression or stalking. This app is not to be used for emergency situations, as reports may not be relayed to officers immediately, according to Beckley.
Beckley also spoke about the college’s Behavior Intervention Team. Made up of several staff and faculty members, the team’s goal is to address and assess any potentially troubling behavior concerning a member of the campus community and to provide assistance or disciplinary actions depending on the situation, according to Beckley.
“We’ve had B.I.T.s where a student comes in showing signs of abuse,” said Beckley. “We were able to schedule counseling for that student and discovered an off-campus dating relationship that had become abusive.”
Some members of the audience expressed concern that reporting a B.I.T. might reflect poorly on a student’s records. Beckley stressed that B.I.T. reports do not remain on a student’s record and will not, by themselves, negatively impact a student.
“The B.I.T. process is designed to…bring to bear certain resources to help a student,” said Beckley. “It is not designed to be a punitive action. If it makes you uncomfortable, then it’s BIT worthy.”
Moorpark has five full-time officers on campus and 250 cameras. This allows campus police to be aware of much of what is happening on campus, but there are still blind spots and the campus police need everyone’s help to keep the campus safe.
If ever a student or faculty needs to report a situation, they can contact the Moorpark College Police Station at (805) 378-1455.
