San Jose State’s University Police Department (UPD) held a public discussion in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library on Monday, covering recent crime trends and answering questions from the SJSU community.
UPD Chief Michael Carroll said the forum was meant to provide a space for people to see the work UPD is doing while also being able to voice any concerns.
“We really thrive on trying to build relationships and foster wholesome relationships that can help us identify sustainable solutions to our campus safety,” Carroll said.
UPD Capt. Frank Belcastro said a common theme he has seen with incidents on campus is the prolific presence of drugs, specifically crack.
“It looks like crack is making an appearance again because this is the second case where we’ve gotten crack on an individual, so it looks like it’s coming back.” Belcastro said.
Along with drugs, weapons are prevalent on campus, according to Belcastro.
Belcastro said a laundry list of drugs was often accompanied by the possession of at least one gun, knife or other form of dangerous artillery.
He also said 95% of UPD arrests were of non-students.
Belcastro said the data is directly correlated with SJSU's campus being open to the public and its vulnerable location in the middle of downtown San Jose.
Carroll said some of the core values UPD tries to maintain while protecting campus include respect, professionalism and courage.
Another value talked about was approachability.
Carroll said one way UPD has gone about strengthening its approachability is getting officers out of their cars and using foot patrol, which allows for quick and friendly interaction between officers and students.
Belcastro said UPD has had multiple events like Coffee with a Cop and Holiday with a Cop, in which students could simply introduce themselves to officers and meet them in an amiable setting.
“It’s the positive contact we’re trying to emphasize,” Belcastro said. “Yeah, when you call us we’re coming there, and it’s probably not your best day if you needed the police but, we’re trying to get out there and emphasize that positive contact.”
Carroll said accountability is important within UPD.
He said he encourages officers to look at five random pieces of body camera footage a month to recognize areas of good, acceptable work and areas that can be improved.
“We want to be able to recognize that there may be some areas in which the officer may need some additional training and we may be able to recognize it,” Carroll said. “We look for professionalism when it comes to communicating with the public, so there’s a number of things we look for.”
He said UPD finds that understanding the culture of the people it serves is paramount and officers have even participated in cultural humility courses to try and bring more awareness to the importance of cultural diversity.
“We can learn a lot from our community, and sometimes we may not have the demographics in our police department that the community may have. So we try to be real invitational about bringing in people who fall under different cultures or ethnicities,” Carroll said.
An issue that arose during the meeting was the blurry line between public usage of university resources and the comfort of students.
Carroll said the problem is tough to solve, as UPD has to balance being both firm in accommodating student concerns and cognizant of the rights of the greater San Jose community.
“One thing we can’t do is be discriminatory,” Carroll said. “So I can’t walk up and say, ‘This person looks homeless’ and assume that they’re homeless, and ask them to leave the facility.”
The public nature of SJSU's campus seemed to be a large point of contention for UPD, but MLK Library, one of the campus's largest public buildings, has found great support from UPD.
Wendy Dunn, MLK library Director of Operations and Administrative Services, said she is proud of the relationship between the library and UPD.
“Not only university folks are in the building, but also our relationship with San Jose Public Library brings in a lot of community members to our facility, so it’s really important that we have a positive working relationship with UPD,” Dunn said.
She said she wants to cater to the sensitivities of San Jose’s community and knows not everyone shares the same cordial relationship with law enforcement.
“From an administrative perspective we’re very grateful to have UPD’s presence within our building, but we also realize that maybe for some folks who enter the building, they don’t have that same type of relationship with law enforcement,” Dunn said.
Chicano studies graduate student Rachel Flores said she attended the meeting to see what topics UPD was going to cover, as she believes violence on college campuses can be solved without the use of weaponry.
“I don’t believe that there needs to be a use of weapons necessarily and so I think that, you know, willing community members would be better able to serve and make folks feel safer,” Flores said.
