By Denton Josey, Page Editor
This semester the campus police will have a larger role in protecting ACU students.
March 13, ACU police chief Jimmy Ellison announced a larger jurisdiction for the campus police.
Ellison said there was a period last semester when the department was giving out warnings and not tickets so students would have a reasonable amount of time to get used to the jurisdiction changes.
In cooperation with the Abilene Police Department, ACU police now have the same abilities in the neighborhoods surrounding campus as they do on campus.
In what Ellison calls a “two for one deal,” the city of Abilene is now being protected by the ACU Police Department. Part of the deal is that while the department’s jurisdiction increases, the city and state provide no additional funding for campus police.
Ellison said Abilene police chief Melvin Martin “is basically getting 10 more officers without paying for it.”
“There’s no difference between a city officer and a campus officer now,” Ellison said. “Students can expect to see more traffic enforcement, and that is a good thing for safety.”
Ellison said some visible effects of the change include more neighborhood patrols, reasonable amounts of traffic enforcement and now two departments serving the area.
“It will affect a lot of people, not just students,” Ellison said.
Ellison plans to increase personnel from the current 10 officers to 15 in the near future. He said the state average for police officers on a campus the size of ACU is 17, and with an increased jurisdiction the need for more officers is more obvious.
One of the benefits from this change is a quicker response time from the police.
“If you live in this neighborhood things will be much safer,” Ellison said. “We’ll get there quicker because we’re right around the corner.”
Betty Shipp, retired ACU alumnus who lives on East North 18th Street, is pleased with the new jurisdiction.
“The school has 4,000 people in it, and they don’t all live on campus. They live around the campus,” Shipp said. “This is nothing but OK for them to do. It’s usually the ones who live off campus who get into trouble.”
The increased jurisdiction is not an attempt to enforce ACU policy, Ellison said. It is a law enforcement issue. This will enable the ACU police to keep a larger area safer as they are able to patrol surrounding neighborhoods, not limited to the students, faculty and staff of ACU.
“We just wanted to make this place a safer place to live in,” Ellison said. “That’s the bottom line.”
