Students will interact with two new crime prevention officers on campus this year.
The Bradley University Police Department created the position last winter, and officers Sean Savage and Shane Young have taken over the job.
“I feel it’s important for a university police department to focus on outreach, prevention training and education rather than simply enforcement,” Chief Brian Joschko said. “While we have done quite a bit of outreach, prevention training and education within the past five years, we decided the time was right to dedicate an officer to be coordination of those specific tasks.”
According to Savage, having two policemen assigned to the position allows for a daytime and nighttime officer.
“[Shane and I have] sat down once or twice … and we are starting to collaborate a lot and get some things written down, and I’m excited for what he’s got,” Savage said.
Savage said one of his goals as crime prevention officer is to educate Bradley’s campus on important topics, such as how to stay safe in an active shooter situation and what to do in the event a natural disaster occurs. He and Young will hold safety and campus emergency plan presentations throughout the year.
“The students, faculty or anyone can call on me, and I’ll go do a presentation for a group of three if I have to; I’m pretty flexible,” Savage said.
Savage said he thinks he will be able to relate to students while holding this position and interacting with campus.
“I’m 26, so I’m really close to the students’ age, so we just have a lot of fun,” he said.
Savage said he hopes to hear feedback from the campus community on the crime prevention officer position.
“If they have anything that they feel is concerning or would like to see us do differently, if we can, we’d like to do that,” Savage said. “Us changing the perspective of how we operate is not just going to be with in-house [feedback], we need input from everywhere or else we’ll never get anywhere.”
Those interested can view the university calendar of events for presentation dates or call (309) 677-2000 to schedule a presentation.
