PVCC Puma Press: December 2004

After being voted down by a narrow 3-2 vote, by the district board in March 2003, in the midst of a heated debate, the issue of College Safety officers carrying guns on campus has been revived.

According to Dr. Jane Saldaña-Talley, PVCC dean of administrative services, the MCCCD chancellor, Dr. Rufus Glasper, has directed the formation of a committee to examine several College Safety issues, including arming campus Safety officers.

The committee consisted of Saldaña-Talley as chair, deans of administrative and student services, College Safety directors and other officials from around the district.

The committee returned a report to Glasper unanimously recommending several measures.

But Saldaña-Talley said, “The one issue the committee could not come to a consensus recommendation on was the arming of campus officers.”
She said the committee was so divided on the issue they could not reach an agreement on any element of the gun issue. This prompted the directors of College Safety throughout the district to get together and submit a second proposal on their own that included arming officers.

PVCC director of College Safety, Scott Meek, said he is in favor of Safety officers carrying guns on campus. He said it is necessary to have the protection of a firearm in case a situation would arise where such force would be needed.

Meek said, “Right now, our best bet would be to call 911 and wait for Phoenix Police to get here. By then it’s too late.”

Meek points out that his staff is comprised primarily of officers trained by police according to the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training (A-POST). Meek said, among his officers, one worked for Phoenix Police for 25 years, one for the Department of Public Safety for 10 years, and a third for the police department in Fairbanks, Alaska, for 25 years.

Meek said most of the officers in the district have some formal law enforcement experience and almost all have passed A-POST. College Safety proposals call for arming only A-POST certified officers.

Meek also said because of their extensive training, the officers feel totally comfortable about carrying guns safely on campus. The fact that they are not armed, he said, hinders officers from functioning as police on campus.
“For them to come into a situation without a firearm, (means) they can’t do all their duties that they’re used to doing,” said Meek.

But Saldaña-Talley said this is where she disagrees on the issue with the directors of College Safety.

She says that surveys of students, faculty and administrators show overwhelmingly that they feel safe coming on campus. Furthermore, she said faculty does not want an organization calling itself “police” on campus.
“They feel that it’s getting too close to municipal law enforcement. It’s too paramilitary,” said Saldaña-Talley.

She said that upon interviewing for the job, College Safety officers are informed that they will not carry firearms, and they are not joining a municipal-style law enforcement agency.

She said she believes that it makes more sense to call them “officers” than police.

Saldaña-Talley also said that crime rates are going down on campuses across the district, and natures of the crimes campus officers are facing are mostly book thieves, break-ins, financial aid fraud, and trespassers. There has never been a shooting on campus at PVCC

Meek said, however, that if even a book thief wants to get away and has a gun, he would use it.

Saldaña-Talley said she understands that officers feel they are putting their lives on the line. “When something bad happens on campus, they’re the ones we call,” she said. However, she also said, “Are they dealing with the same level crime that is going on in our community? Not for one moment.”
As a citizen Saldaña-Talley said she must recognize that many staff and students are also opposed to officers carrying guns on campus.

Two of the issues that Meek and Saldaña-Talley agree on are that they think it is an asset to have police-trained officers on campus, and potential threats to the campus will probably come from the surrounding communities, rather than internally.

Meek and Saldaña-Talley also agree that there needs to be a director of College Safety at the district level to unify the operations of all the College Safety departments district wide.

Right now, the proposals from the committee and the directors of College Safety are under review by Dr. Glasper. Glasper declined to comment on the proposals until they are fully reviewed and then sent back to their committees for further recommendation and a final report.