For students and police officers, safety is a major concern. Students want to feel safe at school, and it is an officers duty to ensure that their community is protected.
When an event takes place that interferes with student safety, it raises concerns, but campus police Lieutenant Burt Gutierrez wants to assure students that they are indeed safe.
“We’re trying to stretch our resources and make sure we have as much coverage as possible in any event where security is a requirement,” said Gutierrez. “We work closely with the health center, so we’re the first respondents in the event of a medical emergency.”
Ryan Alahakoon, a 22-year-old nursing major feels safe on campus and knows who he would go to if he ever had a concern regarding safety.
“Anyone who works out of the offices or a faculty member or a professor even,” said Alahakoon.
On Valentine’s day, a low-credibility threat was made stating that there would be a shooter on campus. Students who opted to receive emergency text messages were alerted about the threat and told that classes would still be in session. Despite the low-credibility, the threat was still taken very seriously by police.
“We increased our visibility in vehicular patrol and foot patrol,” said Gutierrez. “We had resources from other campuses and switched to twelve hour shifts. We deployed longer and we had more overlap in coverage.”
Officers were scattered throughout Moorpark College, patrolling the campus and parking lots. 21-year-old business major Jamyeimi Alvarez expressed her trust in campus police to keep her safe.
“I felt safe since they told us police would be around campus,” said Alvarez.
Not all students were as trusting as Alvarez. Jason Sobel, 24, computer science major has doubts regarding police.
“I don’t know much about the campus police, but I have doubts about police these days, whether it’s campus or in general,” said Sobel. “But from what I’ve seen they seem better than I’d expect from any sort of police honestly.”
Following the weeks after the threat, police presence steadily diminished, but officers remained vigilant. Gutierrez explained how things proceeded.
“This was a great opportunity for us to see where we were prepared and where we weren’t and I actually think it went quite well.” said Gutierrez.
The Campus Police Station is located next to the parking garage by the gymnasium and can be reached by one of the 14 Emergency Blue Phones around campus or by calling (805) 378-1455.
