The University-Daily Kansan
Editor’s note: On Nov. 10, reporter Garth Sears rode with an officer from the KU Public Safety Office during his shift. His account of the night is below.
The lights on top of officer Robert Blevins’ car flashed red and blue as his car screamed as loud as it could. He flew north on Naismith Drive. at 50 miles per hour. He parked his car behind Tower A of the Jayhawker Towers, ran up the stairwell to the fourth floor and followed the racket of a fire alarm to a door.
“EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY,” the recorded voice blared. Some smoke wafted out into the hall, as he opened the door.
Inside, two women sat on their couch, looking a little sheepish. One had burned her dinner, setting off the fire alarm, and she couldn’t help but smile at the commotion she had caused. She had the charred remains of dinner on a plate in her lap, explaining the alarm without words when the emergency responders got there.
“It’s still edible, right?” Blevins asked, laughing.
Public Safety Office Building
The KU Public Safety Office has its own dispatch center, which calls police from the Public Safety Office and fire trucks from the city when people on campus need help. During the last academic year, it called fire trucks to campus 495 times, not including winter break, according to a city report. In fact, because of the similarities in dispatch centers, Douglas County can use the University’s dispatch room in a pinch.
If you call 911 from a cell phone, cellular companies have worked with the city and University to pinpoint your call — off-campus calls go to the Douglas County dispatch center. But if you call while on campus your emergency call goes to the University dispatch, and maybe Blevins will be the one who comes to help you.
Satellite buildings further west
Blevins listens to the Lawrence Police Department’s radio for crimes in progress while driving on patrol, which he said was his way of monitoring the area just outside of his jurisdiction.
“Things have a tendency to drift onto campus,” he said.
As he drove, eyes darting toward the dark spots, he talked about his love of working at the University, especially compared to other police departments.
To be a police officer in Kansas, a trainee must complete 560 hours of basic training at the state law enforcement center. Another 640 hours of in-department training follows, including some basic training and ride-alongs with a training officer, before the trainee can be put on general assignment, according to the KU Public Safety Office website.
The University and city police back each other up when there is an overload of calls. Blevins has occasionally responded to calls from the city.
Bagley Dr., outside the Stouffer Place apartments south of Daisy Hill
For Blevins, it all started with a class project in junior high: find a job you think you’d like and go tag along with someone in the profession.
So he had an adventurous ride-along with his cousin, who worked on the traffic unit of the Lawrence Police Department.
His cousin was the closest officer to a residential burglary call. As they approached, they saw the car matching the description from the victim. His cousin got the guy.
“That’s when I caught the bug,” Blevins said.
He’s been working as a University policeman for more than four years.
“My dad told me, ‘When you pick out your job, pick one that makes you happy,’” Blevins said. “I’m happy.”
19th St. east of Iowa St.
Robert Blevins can turn into Officer Blevins quickly.
He has the unusual ability to be completely immersed in a conversation, right before he flips a tight u-turn unexpectedly, revs up his engine, and turns on his siren.
“They had a light out,” he said of the navy blue Saturn pulled over in front of him.
The process was the same every time Blevins pulled someone over: He shined his bright car-mounted light on the driver’s side, radioed University dispatch to give them the car’s information and his location, and walked up to get the driver’s license and registration.
The woman kept staring at her rearview mirror to see what Blevins was doing. She looked nervous.
Called to Jayhawker Towers
There was some kind of physical confrontation reported at the Jayhawker Towers that dispatch called out on the radio. Another officer was already there, but she needed help getting the account of the person who reported the incident.
Blevins was there within a minute or two. He pulled up to the parking lot west of Tower A, got out of his car, and started looking around.
It took him less than 15 seconds to find the man, in a gray shirt and sweats, with a blue jacket.
The two men stood at the foot of a cement staircase, and Blevins had a foot on the first step and his hands in his pockets. They stood side-by-side, like they were discussing the weather or the latest basketball game. It seemed to calm the man down.
At 7:10 p.m., the other officer came over to talk to Blevins about what he found out. The incident seemed less criminal all the time. It was okay for him to leave.
“Everything’s fine,” the other officer radioed back to dispatch.
Patrolling West Campus again
Blevins is used to respect.
He’s an unassuming, friendly guy. He’s certain to ask anyone who crosses his path, “How are you doin’ tonight?”
But people still step out of his way, or perhaps stutter when they first talk to Blevins. When he walked through a crowd of students, their eyes darted from his badge to his gun to his handcuffs.
“When you’re in one of these marked cars, they’ll wait for you to go at a four-way stop, even though they were there first,” he said.
Parking garage near Allen Fieldhouse and the Burge Union
Blevins checked out spots like parking garages for the same things he was looking for in West Campus, because they’re both areas with parked cars and few people around.
He said these patrols rarely catch an act in progress, but that didn’t meant crime went undetected.
“The public is really our eyes and ears,” he said. “Police are very dependant on the public.”
In fact, the number of car burglaries has been down for the last few years. According to crime statistics published on the Public Safety Office’s website, there were 115 car burglaries in 1999. The number was in the 70s, 80s, and 90s from 2000 to 2004.
But from 2005 to 2009, the last full year of statistics available, the number of car burglaries was in the 30s and 40s per year.
Fire call to Jayhawker Towers
A dispatcher announced a fire alarm at the Jayhawker Towers. Blevins was visibly hurried, the most he had been that night. His hands scrambled to grab and put up his speed gun, then they grabbed the steering wheel.
He left the parking lot, made two lefts, then flew up Naismith Avenue to get to the towers.
It took him less than a minute from the radio call before he started climbing the stairs.
After he realized it was just smoke from cooking, he exchanged information with a member of towers staff to file an incident report. Then they had to wait for the firefighters to arrive so they could turn the alarm off and do their own report.
Blevins was joking with the women while they waited.
“What are you guys watching?” he said, looking at their TV.
Moments later, two tall firefighters wearing heavy equipment also completed the hike up to the fourth floor.
Everyone was laughing, smiling and joking while the alarm blared.
“You guys been busy tonight?” Blevins asked the firefighters.
Maybe not that night, but firefighters are often busy coming to campus. They did it 495 times last school year, not including winter break — more than two per day. And fire trucks went to the Jayhawker Towers 52 of those times, according to a report from the city.
That means firefighters responded to the towers more than 10 percent of the times they came to campus last year.
— Edited by Roshni Oommen
