UAF POLICE GET FEDERAL CRIME-FIGHTING DOLLARS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 21, 1996
Fairbanks, Alaska Û University of Alaska Fairbanks Police Officer Syrilyn Tong knew there was federal crime-fighting money out there and wanted to know how UAF could get some. After a two-day grant-writing class at UAF, lots of paperwork and perseverance, her efforts have paid off to the tune of $150,000 from the U.S. Department of JusticeÌs Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program.
The COPS grant will fund two additional police officers at UAF, increasing the ranks of full-time officers to ten by summerÌs end. According to Tong, UAF fit the bill for the program because of its emphasis on crime prevention as opposed to crime reaction.
"We do more walk-abouts, dorm checks, crime prevention talks and alcohol awareness talks than most of our urban colleagues," said Tong. The focus is on problem solving before crisis and crime erupt, she says.
Providing police protection in a university environment is unique, says UAF Vice Chancellor Michael Rice, who oversees the police and fire departments.
We do a good job. But we always want to find ways to do things
better, or find ways that use innovative approaches to problem
solving. With budgets getting leaner, itÌs extremely gratifying
to me that one of our own officers took the initiative to seek
funds to help the entire department and UAF.
Since 1990, when UAFÌs police department became an armed unit, a variety of measures have been implemented to upgrade service and enhance safety to the campus community.
Some of the measures include strengthening educational and judicial proceedings for first-time alcohol offenses, giving students the option of living on an alcohol-free floor in residence halls, expanding shuttle bus service to Hutchison Career Center and the Tanana Valley Campus Downtown Center, re-activating front door security check-in systems, improving campus lighting, putting phones in every room of residence halls and beefing up the availability of emergency phones campuswide.
The UAF Police Department is also taking advantage of the latest technology to improve its law enforcement capabilities. In what may be the first in-state use by law enforcement officials, UAF officers are now writing reports in the field on hand-held computers called "personal digital assistants" or PDAs.
UAF Police Officer Sean McGee, who was instrumental in getting the PDAs for departmentwide use, says officers donÌt have to return to the station to file reports, meaning more police are out on patrols instead of in the office doing paperwork. The information is stored in the PDAs until the officer returns to headquarters to download the file into department computers.
"The PDAs recognize hand-written notes and reduce the amount of time it takes for routine tasks. We save on time and improve our accuracy by actually completing the reports while at the scene or out on patrol. We can spend more time out on our beats where we can respond quicker to incidents when they occur," said McGee.
All UAF police officers will be outfitted with PDAs by the beginning of the fall semester.
CONTACT: UAF Vice Chancellor for Administrative
Services Michael Rice, (907) 474-7340, or UAF Police Chief Dale
Florian (907) 474-7211.
DPD/6-21-96/96-088