In order to get an idea of what our campus police do from day to day, I had the pleasure of riding along with one of our officers, Patrol Sergeant Les Jackson Dec. 10 from 9 p.m. to midnight.

The university police department has 14 certified officers and approximately 11 or 12 reserve officers, Jackson said. Every night there are at least five officers on duty.

The evening began rather dully with few events. We patrolled the campus to make sure everything was safe and checked the parking deck after that.

“Throughout the night, we are always riding around the campus just to make sure everything is all right,” Jackson said.

While in the parking deck, I met with an officer stationed in the deck to ensure safety. Officer Butch, a reserve officer, was patrolling in the parking deck from 8 or 9 p.m. until around 2 or 3 a.m. that night. He rode a Segway all throughout the deck. On this particular evening, it was very cold, so his dedication was admirable.

During my time spent with the officers, I learned how to ride the Segway, and it’s definitely not as easy as it looks.

After patrolling the parking deck, we rode over to Flowers Hall where a high school basketball tournament was being held. Officer Romeo Gillyard was stationed at the basketball game, but we stopped by to see if help was needed for traffic.

“A lot of times with big events, traffic can be a mess,” Jackson said.

Luckily, the attendees left sporadically throughout the games, so traffic wasn’t an issue.

After another patrol through both campuses, we stopped by the library where I was able to meet a member of the SNAP team and see the work they do. Shortly after, a foreign exchange student who believed she had left her keys in Keller Hall earlier that day called. The student was leaving to return to China the next morning.

Jackson spent the remainder of the evening trying to find a way into the locked classroom to retrieve the keys. After searching for someone with keys to the particular classroom, it was determined that the student had not left keys inside. From that point the lost and found was searched through but with no luck in finding her keys. The officer was very helpful, given the situation.