One area of Hammond that Brian Miller didn’t have to worry about during his years as the city’s police chief was the Purdue University Calumet campus.
“Crime on campus is a lot less frequent than it is in the surrounding city,” said Miller, who retired from the city police force and now serves as Public Safety Director for the Purdue University Calumet and North Central campuses recently united as Purdue University Northwest.
Campus policing at Purdue University Northwest, Valparaiso University and Indiana University Northwest (IUN) typically extend beyond the institution’s physical boundaries. While these campuses may report little actual crime, the presence of these institutions impact the communities where they operate, as does the surrounding community on the campus.
IUN Police Chief Wayne James said building relationships with school’s 6,000 students and its various campus organizations, such as student government, is critical to maintaining campus safety. Fostering communication with residents in the surrounding Glen Park neighborhood, in addition to partnering with the Gary Police Department, has helped IUN rank as the safest campus in Indiana the past two years, according to James.
“We can’t act like we’re on an island,” said James, who served six years on the New Chicago Police Department before coming on board at IUN. “We don’t confine ourselves just to the campus. Some of our students live in the neighborhood or park their cars on the street.”
Valparaiso University Police Chief Becky Walkowiak echoed the importance of police outreach programs both on campus and in the community.
“When I became chief one of the first things I did was purchase an ATV so that the officers would be more approachable to students,” said Walkowiak, who has been a police officer at Valparaiso University for 30 years, the last eight as chief. “We also have a bicycle patrol for the same reason, and have a good working relationship with the Valparaiso Police Department, Porter County Sheriff’s Department and several federal agencies.”
Miller said that outreach activities in the local community and on campus between university police and students is an important aspect of maintaining a safe and harmonious campus. The monthly Pizza With a Cop activity, where students and staff enjoy lunch with Calumet campus officers in Griffin Hall, is one of the police department’s new initiatives.
“We get very few (emergency) calls, so we have the resources to do lot of community service,” Miller said. “Most of the offenses we do have are usually travel related or involve alcohol.”
Miller went from administering a Hammond Police Department comprised of 211 officers to just 12 full-time and three part-time officers at the Hammond campus and six full-timers and several part-timers at North Central.
“I do miss the everyday excitement and the camaraderie with the (Hammond) police officers,” he said. “Coming here was quite a culture shock.”
Miller said that ensuring public safety on a university or college campus comes with a set of challenges quite different from what law enforcement routinely experience in a municipal environment. No two campuses are exactly alike, but Miller said those in Northwest Indiana grapple with common issues.
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“Safety on campus really comes to engagement with students and the community through our own outreach activities,” said James.
Miller has the challenge of maintaining public safety at two campus separated by approximately 35 miles. The campuses are different in that some students live in dorms at Purdue Calumet while the North Central campus in LaPorte is located rural area and does not have students living on campus.
Despite difference in the university’s twin campuses, Miller prepares for the potential of emergencies, such as an active shooting situation, with equal intensity. He said the scenario is a usually a hot topic of discussion at new student orientation events.
“It seems I have at least one parent who asks about an active shooter situation,” Miller said.
He added that the shooting of eight students and an assistant professor at Umpqua Community College in Roseberg, Ore., last October crystalized the possibility that such violence could occur anywhere.
Like IUN and Purdue Northwest campus police, Valparaiso’s officers attend the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and receive several weeks of field training. Officers from all three schools are professionally trained to respond to an active shooter situation in addition to other types of campus emergencies.
Walkowiak acknowledges active shooters and terror threats are a reality that law enforcement must prepare for no matter how small or seemingly peaceful the campus.
“We have warning systems for our campus community in case of a critical incident,” she said. “My assistant chief is a specialized instruction in active shooter/terrorism events and is also an incident commander. He trains the campus community members on what to do in a critical incident.”
Walkowiak added that Valparaiso University has three emergency teams—an Incident Command Team, the Police Department Incident Management Team, and Emergency Response Team, with officers required to serve on two of the teams.
“Our team trains regularly on critical incidents, with a main focus on active shooter response,” she said.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.