An armed Bakersfield Police Department officer will begin patrolling Bakersfield College Monday.
It will be the first time in the school’s history that an armed officer from an outside law enforcement agency will be assigned to the campus.
Senior Officer John Jamison is assigned to the campus and will begin his duties Oct. 15. Jamison has been on campus most the week meeting with officials and BC’s campus police. Linda Quinones-Vaughan, executive director of external relations and administrative services, said the majority of decisions have been made for what the officer’s role will be.
“We will continue to meet once (the officer) is on campus,” Quinones-Vaughan said. “Most of the negotiations have finished but there are a few incidentals that need to be worked out.”
She insists that the officer will have a smooth transition into campus life and that if problems develop, her office and the BPD will address them accordingly.
All sides have said publicly that this is a win-win for the safety of students and faculty.
However, the battle to bring an outside law enforcement entity on campus has been fought long and hard for the past three years despite both sides making accommodations for one another.
BC officer Joe Johnson said campus officers feel that they got the short end of the stick.
“We’ll go along with the program because that’s what (BC) wants,” said Johnson, during an interview in September. But Johnson said that issues like arrest powers and other functions that security has provided in the past would become unclear. Provisions of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST)-certification for the officers expire in June 2002.
“If we do not have arrest powers, we need to come out of uniform,” he said.
Johnson said that he does not want to see BC transform from an educational environment where students are free to learn, to a place where students who commit misdemeanors are arrested and that learning environment is fragmented.
“The college has no control (over the officer), the police department does. We’ll take them to the dean of students. They’ll take them to jail,” Johnson said. “You commit a crime, you do the time and that’s their job. It’s hook and book.”
In early September, the Kern Community College District Board of Trustees approved the installment of the officer after recommendations made by BC President Dr. Sandra Serrano.
The recommendations varied from having the campus police take POST instructions to carry guns, to completely eliminating the force and hiring outside agencies to take its place.
Her final recommendation was to “maintain the current Bakersfield College Security Department designation and enter into a collaborative agreement with the Bakersfield Police Department to enhance the existing 30-year relationship by establishing a police presence.”
Discussions between Serrano and trustee members including Chair Pauline Larwood, Dennis Beebe, Kevin McCarthy and John Rodgers, and Dr. Walter Packard, district chancellor, lasted for 30 minutes after Serrano made her recommendation. Some concerns about powers to arrest and the question of who would answer to whom were not answered directly. Serrano told the board that those decisions would be made when discussions took place.
The trustees approved the recommendation unanimously.
Nevertheless, Johnson said that the department doesn’t need help and that the officer’s presence would be a hindrance to the college environment. Statistics provided by the security department touted that BC has the lowest crime statistics of any community college in California.
“If you had a lot of crime at the college, then it would warrant Bakersfield police,” he said. “Because it clearly shows that we’re not capable of handling (the campus). But when you have a college that has the lowest crime rate in the state, why do need a city police officer? Aren’t you wasting the city’s time?”
Quinones-Vaughan said that bringing BPD on site would only help to increase security, and that the police department would work hand-in-hand with the security department. She said that the campus police should not worry about their roles diminishing.
In response, Johnson said he feels that students will start to question their authority as officers because BPD is here. Students may be more apprehensive to interact with the officers and will begin to mistreat them because they are not the highest authority.
“They would (give us) no respect. They’d treat you as a security guard and that makes your job even tougher. That’s what they think – rent-a-cop,” he said.
In the middle, Bakersfield Police Chief Eric Matlock said that he understands the officers’ frustration and their inability to believe that a BPD officer would treat students the same as campus cops do.
Matlock, a BC graduate, said he’s not concerned about officers with guns because his officers are trained to use them properly and that the officer assigned will receive special training for situations unique to colleges.
Jamison is a 10-year veteran of the force. He has assisted in training other officers and new recruits and according to BPD’s Lt. Bob Bivens, he will fit in nicely to BC’s atmosphere.
“The criteria was that the officer had to have a good work ethic and personal history,” Bivens said. “(Jamison) is the best man for the job.”
Matlock echoed Bivens’ endorsement of the officer.
“This officer is easygoing, open to working with students, teachers and campus security,” he said.
The decision, according to both Matlock and Quinones-Vaughan, to bring BPD instead of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department, rested in the fact that BC is contained within the city limits and officers routinely patrol the perimeter of the campus. Other candidates once included the Kern High School District and the Wackenhut Corporation, a private security company based in Southern California.
The relationship that all sides refer to is the training of Bakersfield Police cadets at Bakersfield College, something that has been on campus for more than 20 years. In a release, Serrano said that BPD was a natural choice because of its strong ties to the campus and that the college provided resources and the space for BPD to train their officers.
“We have trained many officers through our Public Safety Training Academy at Bakersfield College and this agreement will enhance BC’s positive relationship (with BPD),” Serrano said in the release.
Matlock said that one full-time officer with all the equipment and the specialized car cost the department about $140,000 in the first year. The cost of the new officer is not being paid for by the college, but is coming out of the coffers of the BPD and the city of Bakersfield.
Matlock said the one thing that everyone needs to recognize is that BPD is coming to assist and he said that he should not voice opinions about whether or not BC should have made the existing campus police POST-certified to carry guns.
“I have no position about (existing security officers) because we’re there to work with them,” he said. “I’m neutral.”
Bivens said that department is not here to take anyone’s job. He said that BPD can offer a “deep bench” of assistance and that working together, hopefully, crime would be even lower.
“We’re not here to push Bakersfield College security around,” he said. “We’re here to help make the campus safer. This is all new for us and it will be a work in progress.”