Campus Police

Working as police for a campus brimming with the brightest, most well behaved students of any college campus, how do you spend your time? At a college with an Honor Code which is strictly enforced, what do campus police do without having to break up wild parties, prevent underage drinking, or worry about drunk students racing in their cars at night? Let me tell you, even without all these typical problems to try and prevent, the life of a campus police officer can still get pretty exciting.

My interest in their busy work was sparked a month ago when I was walking along on my way to my 8:00 Living Prophets class when I saw a bike cop and a nice looking young lady (also on a bike) in what seemed like innocent conversation. Drawing nearer, I heard the bike cop say this (and when I say "bike cop" I hope you are not picturing a hefty looking motorcycle but rather a nice, lean, bicycle), "Were you aware that you were going 15 mph and that the speed limit on campus is 7 mph." I just watched as the girl innocently shook her head in genuine surprise and thought to myself, what a great man! If not for that brave campus police officer I am quite sure that innocent looking girl would have turned that pink bike of hers into a killing machine as she sped through campus rebelliously not observing speed limits. And to that I must tip my hat to him; just another hard day in the life of a campus police officer.

After this I decided I would look up some of the other hard crimes that these brave officers attend to everyday. Here are some examples of reports taken from the Police Beat:

• A student reported his backpack stolen. He found it later.
• A student was trying to scare girls in their dorm in Heritage Halls by knocking on the window. He broke the window, cut himself and needed stitches.
• A man claimed another man rammed him with a stroller at the bus stop. He believed the other man was cutting in line. The matter is under investigation.
•  Police found the words “question everything” painted on a partition in a men’s bathroom in the JFSB.
• BYU workers went to winterize a home owned by BYU and found the back door kicked in. Nothing was missing because nothing was in the house.
• Officers responded to a possible fight at the ITB. A couple was arguing about who would drive the car home. The woman was upset because her husband wanted her to drive. No crime was committed.
• A student was reported missing. When officers arrived, the student had returned.

As I'm sure yours did, my excitement grew as I read these reports to put up on my blog. Then, as I neared the more recent submissions, I beamed with joy to find that there was a report that I was apart of! It reads:

October 23: A Provo resident complained of loud “hooting and hollering” coming from the Creamery parking lot. The police arrived on the scene at 12:40 a.m.. Twelve students from Heritage Hall were listening to Beyonce; they were warned and released. 
My, oh my! I finally have my claim to fame! A couple weekends ago some friends and I were walking around when we saw a small dance party (all guys) out in front of Snow Hall. And when I say dance party I mean a bunch of guys sitting around while one or two would get up and in a very "interpretive" style, dance. We were listening to Single Ladies by Beyonce when two cop cars pulled up. Instinctively we turned down the music and waited for punishment. After a few minutes we were joking with the police officers and one of them had assured us that if he had not been in uniform he would have done the Single Ladies' dance for us. Let me just say, that we all walked away from that experience feeling quite rebellious. After watching those cop cars pull away, I just knew that I was living the wild and crazy college life every young adult dreams of. What more could I ask for?


To read more from the Police Beat, go to http://universe.byu.edu/index.php/category/campus/police-beat/

Seeing Signs

No matter where we are headed during our day to day routine or what we are doing we all have some sort of purpose, a destination we are seeking. In life in general we are all working towards goals with choices that we make. And then there are those times where, sometimes without our conscious knowledge of it, we get a little off course. We find ourselves lost and headed in a direction that does not take us to our desired endpoint. Luckily, if we are looking for them, we will see signs that will help point us back in the right direction. Oh how true this was for me today.....

So I had a block of time between my American Heritage class and my Intro to English Major so I came home and started my blog before heading back to campus. Well, my English class was the only one I had not been to yet so I had no clue where it was. Being the prepared little student that I am, I looked up where it was at right before I left for campus. I look down and read HBLL, and for those of you who are not familiar with the abbreviation, the HBLL is the library. The extremely vast library that covers FIVE stories and a huge portion of campus. So where was my class located in all that constitutes this vast library? If you can answer that then you should have talked to me three hours ago because I was clueless. My best bet was to just walk into the library and hope I could find it. Straight into the windowed building I went and right past the campus police desk I saw my first sign. It read: "If you are looking for any of these classes (it had a list of room numbers which mine was on) then you are going the wrong way! Head right out those doors and go around to the south entrance."

This is where I panicked.. I wasn't about to be the painfully obvious freshmen girl who made the amateur mistake of coming in the wrong entrance. No, I couldn't risk the embarrassment of anyone noticing that I was lost. So I did what anyone would do; kept walking in hopes that I could still reach it from this entrance. Walking along my merry way down this bustling metropolis of all that is knowledge and learning, it seemed, I came upon that same sign. Why?! Why could this sign just let me get to my class without having to turn around and feel the shifting glances as I awkwardly change course. But on I went until I reached the third one of these signs. It was as if someone was screaming at me, "Just turn around already before you are late!" Luckily right up ahead there was a bathroom and I thought to myself, "This is my chance." I walked in, waited a few moments, washed my hands and headed out. Finally turning myself in the right direction so I could backtrack out and find my class. Eventually I did make it to my destination and just on time too. If I had let one more sign pass me by before turning around I don't think I would have made it.

I found this kind of comical, even when it was happening, that it is so relateable to what some of us do all the time. We start going in the wrong direction, and at one point something makes us realize this. But to save ourselves from the outside world recognizing that we made a mistake, we continue on our way. This my friends is a combination of pride and stubbornness. It would have saved me so much time and trouble if I had just turned around at the first sign but because of my focus on outside notice I kept on going. Honestly, if I had turned around I might have caught a few passersby' notice but who knows if they would have thought anything of it. I was of little to no importance to them yet I held all of their anonymous opinions at high enough of a regard to not turn around. I truly hope that next time I am put in this situation, whether literally or during life, that I will have the strength to forget my pride and turn around at the first sign because who knows how many I will get.