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Limited campus police root of growing concern among students
By Michael Godfrey
mgodfre3@mscd.edu

Photo by Jason Small • jsmall4@mscd.edu Auraria police officer Proffer issues a $65 ticket to a bicyclist for disobeying a traffic control device. Auraria police officers Skeem and Peete (pictured behind Proffer) responded to a call for backup to control the situation. The bicyclist declined to give his name.

A limited police presence at Auraria has some students complaining of few or no officers around the downtown campus at night.

“I avoid scheduling classes at night,” Metro student Audrey Scully said. “I just don’t see any cops on campus when I’m there at night.”

Auraria’s significant growth over the past year has left the Auraria police with a limited staff, according to Auraria police Chief Heather Coogan.

“In the past it hasn’t been necessary for a police staff to patrol campus at night,” Coogan said. “But as the campus grows and more activities happen on Auraria, we have to re-evaluate the staffing.”

Campus has changed over the past few years with a growth in population, increased light-rail traffic and the addition of campus residences. Campus police are seeing more and more students at Auraria at night.

“Auraria Campus has seen many changes, adding activity that wasn’t there,” Coogan said.

Coogan currently has 20 sworn officers on her staff patrolling campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There are over 36,000 students at Auraria, Coogan said.

The Auraria police control events in the Tivoli, run parking patrols for Pepsi Center events and, with the upcoming addition of light-rail lines on Nov. 17, the police will have more to control.

With the low crime rate on campus, an increase in police is hard to justify.

“We have the lowest crime rate of any campus in Colorado and that creates the unique problem,” she said. “We can’t justify more officers in the budget with low crime rates. For more officers, we need to do our job worse and let crime rise. That’s just not something we want to do.”

Students also say there may not be a need for more officers, but more improvements to campus safety should be made.

“I’d like to see a few more emergency phones in the parking lots and maybe a few more police substations around the central campus,” Metro student Paco Elizalde said.

Student safety is Coogan’s main concern, and with over $500,000 from the Auraria Foundation for improvements to security on campus, changes have been made.

“We’ve added more emergency phones all over campus with plans to build more and lighting is being increased all around campus and the light-rail stations,” Coogan said.

Coogan also advises students to take some steps toward their own safety by programming emergency phone numbers into their cell phones and just being aware of their surroundings.
Students also suggested security cameras located all around campus and a full-time officer stationed at the Colfax light-rail station.

“We have officers who make their presence known at the light-rail station,” Coogan said, “But that is also patrolled by RTD security officers.”

The Auraria police are also hosting a “Safe Campus Night” on Oct. 19 to allow students to voice concerns while giving a guided walking tour of the campus and its surroundings.