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DEKALB, Ill. (AP) — It was campus police who were the first responders when a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in 2008, killing five students.
The department's role to serve and protect was put on national display, and underscored its bona fide powers as a law enforcement agency.
"Campus policing is nothing new," said NIU Police Chief Thomas Phillips. However, he added, "the level of responsibility for campus police has evolved ... from a security mentality to a police mentality."
Each year since then, NIU's Department of Police and Public Safety has brought federal, state and other local law enforcement agencies to the campus for large-scale emergency response training.
Campus police departments nationwide have often been dismissed as quasi-law enforcement agencies, with their policing powers and jurisdictions called into question. But NIU police maintain a campus and community presence, and respond to everything from calls about stolen iPhones and reports of sexual assault, to outstanding warrant violations and possession of illegal drugs.
The department is hardly anything out of Mayberry. It's charged with protecting the state's third largest university, including its 756-acre DeKalb campus with its 64 buildings, 4,500 employees and 20,130 students. And it assists on municipal 911 calls all in the town of 43,862, and greater DeKalb County.
It's a $5.2 million operation, with a staff of 39 civilian employees, and a force of 52 professionals who've been police-academy trained, taken the oath to uphold the state and U.S. Constitutions and have salaries that negate any Barney Fife-like comparisons.
The department includes a detective unit and two canine handlers. There are two lieutenants, 13 sergeants, one corporal, and 22 officers. Salaries range from $56,696 to $91,999. As chief, Phillips makes $160,008, according to data provided by NIU.
NIU police have full arrest and investigation powers, carry guns and could soon be among the law enforcement officers to wear body cameras.
"There are some universal policies, practices and procedures," Philips said, about campus versus municipal police. "But there are some differences."
This summer, a University of Cincinnati police officer touched off a national debate about the powers of campus police departments - and overall police brutality - when he shot and killed a motorist stopped for not having a front license plate.
Among the public's questions was why now-former officer Raymon Tensing was patrolling beyond University of Cincinnati's boundaries. Tensing is now facing murder charges and life in prison for the incident, in which his superiors and body camera belie his account of events.
Phillips is reminded of his department's official jurisdiction each time he's in his office, located on one of the university's busiest roads. A framed, panoramic diagram hangs on the wall and outlines the university police's patrol area. It includes on- and off-campus properties owned by the university, located within 2 miles of the university center - on the northwest end of town.
"We also have a responsibility to the community, in general," Phillips said. "Our jobs as public servants are to provide services to the community."
Much of what NIU police do, the city of DeKalb's officers do, as well. The departments are distinguished by DeKalb's bigger budget, larger force and greater jurisdiction. Their big bosses differ too: Phillips reports to NIU President Doug Baker and DeKalb Police Chief Gene Lowery answers to the mayor.
But their policing acumen is similar - and often collaborative.
"Our relationship with the Northern Illinois University police department is excellent," Lowery said. "We've made great strides in recent years to ... utilize our respective officers in a manner that complements both of our missions. And that is such a huge benefit to the university and to the city."
Phillips said he's forging partnerships and adopting new strategies for the NIU police and undoing some of what his predecessor established. Phillips stepped into leadership two years ago this month amid a flurry of city and university changings of guard. DeKalb's Lowery started in May 2012. Then, 11 months later - in April 2013 - John Rey was elected mayor. Doug Baker took the helm of NIU as president in July 2013.
The NIU department is not without its low-lights. It continues efforts to rebound from a series of costly missteps that beset it in recent years. In 2011, an officer was charged with rape, but how the department handled the investigation led to a federal probe. Then-Chief Donald Grady and an officer were fired, as a result. Grady has a civil-rights lawsuit pending against the university stemming from that saga.
Months later, the controversy continued with a deputy chief getting tangled in an incident that attracted a state police investigation. He was paid not to come back to work.
"You will never hear me disparage my predecessors. I look at the now," said Phillips.
Phillips and Lowery said their two departments enjoy mutual respect and shared policing. Last week, DeKalb police contacted NIU officers when a student fell victim to an off-campus robbery. In August, NIU vehicles whizzed along Route 23 to assist Sycamore police in an armed robbery call.
But most of what NIU police respond to happens on campus.
In the first weeks of this school year, NIU police made arrests for theft, drug possession, underage drinking, cyperstalking, and even for a dorm burglary that happened during the move-in weekend, according to NIU police logs.
The activity was not unique to NIU, with similar incidents at other state universities, including the biggest one, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Each year, by law, university crime incidents are reported to the federal government. Last year, NIU reported through the Clery Act that in 2013, there were 12 victims of forcible sexual assault on the DeKalb campus; six robberies; 15 burglaries; and two arsons.
Additionally, NIU police arrested 85 people for alcohol- and 54 people for drug-related offenses that year. Seven people were arrested for offenses related to weapons.
For the most part, 2013 campus crimes were down from what was reported for 2012. Information regarding incidents that happened in 2014 will be available next month.
"(Phillips) and I both believe that his deep commitment to connecting and working with the DeKalb police department is paying dividends with city crime rates now at a 10-year low," Baker said.
Rey has said that crime near the university is mostly attributable to non-DeKalb residents or people who visit NIU for social events but don't attend the school.
At the department helm, Phillips is expanding officers' duties and exposing them to scenarios that may not arise in their time on the NIU force. NIU police joined the DeKalb County Major Case Squad - a special group of officers from several local law enforcement agencies who investigate major crimes and train together - in December 2012, but Phillips also wants his officers to get involved with the Illinois Emergency Alarm System, a statewide program.
Despite the department's past internal strife, Phillips is loath to criticize his predecessors or the culture officers told him existed.
"I don't always read or believe what I read and see in the papers," Phillips said. "I was not here" when those events happened.
The most he would say publicly about what he plans to change from the previous administration is use of the Toyota Prius vehicles as patrol cars.
The university bought seven of them over five years - from 2004 to 2009 - for $25,000 each, NIU reported. Phillips has already begun to replace them in the fleet.
"They're completely impractical for police work," he said. Especially since they can't accommodate having a computer installed in them, and other police equipment.
And, the chief reported, he's gotten the green light to hire more officers.
The NIU police could soon announce it will be hiring.
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Source: The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle, http://bit.ly/1LEttu1
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Information from: The Daily Chronicle, http://www.daily-chronicle.com
This is an AP-Illinois Exchange story offered by The (DeKalb) Daily Chronicle.
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