On Friday nights at Guilford, many students don’t exactly welcome public safety personnel with open arms. Security personnel are just people doing their job, and many students need to realize this. It’s nothing personal. “There is a general attitude towards certain shifts (of the safety officers). Students know (which officers) work which shifts,” said Public Safety Officer Amanda Allen. Allen expanded on the incongruous treatment that certain shifts of safety officers receive: “Some students respect us, some don’t; the day shift gets more respect than the night shift.”
Also, according to Allen, oftentimes students or faculty are not as understanding as officers would like, especially in times when they are on foot, or when only a few are on duty.
“(The general community) needs to take into consideration that we do what we can with what we have,” said Allen. Sometimes only a few officers are on duty – and on foot at that. With more resources, public safety could respond more quickly to situations when they arise.
Talisha Stewart, another Public Safety Officer, stated that often R.A.s do not perform their duties as satisfactorily as she would like to see.
“R.A.s are supposed to be helping when we go into a situation. Off-duty R.A.s are there not helping, and not doing their job sometimes,” Stewart said. “When you’re an R.A., you’re part of public safety.” The Office of Public Safety has undergone numerous changes in the past year. The most prominent and obvious was the move from outsourced security with Allied Security to an in-house security office.
This switch seems to be working better for those in the Office of Public Safety, and the staff seems to prefer it.
“I’d like to see it stay in-house, but with an increase of personnel,” said Keifer Bradshaw, Public Safety Coordinator. “It’s a remarkable change as far as interaction with students is concerned; it increased on a very positive note,” said Bradshaw.
The switch is just one of the changes some hope to see in the next few years. “I’d like a bigger budget, more administrative support, and more programs with interaction between Public Safety and the Guilford community,” said Bradshaw. “I’d like bigger on-campus offices and more officers,” Allen said.
As for next year, security looks as though it will remain in-sourced, and may get much anticipated budget increases, a bigger space from which to work, and more officers to improve response times around campus and to help better deal with the diverse situations with which security has to cope with on any given day.