MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Georgia College and State University’s campus police are out protecting campus, but you may not know them.
“I don’t have any personal relationship with campus police,” said Georgia College senior Wilson Brown. “I haven’t really interacted with them very much, no."
However, there’s a new chief on campus. Wesley Hardin is the new director of Public Safety and Chief of Police and he wants to change that perception.
“Not just, 'Oh, there's the police', but 'Oh, there's Chief Hardin, or Lt. Pervis,” Hardin said.
He's worked 29 years in law enforcement but is no stranger to campus safety.
“The last 15 years of my law enforcement career, I had served as an SRO with the Gwinnett County schools’ police department, and the last two and half years as the Chief of Police for the Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Florida,” he explained.
Hardin says he's found passion in working in education security.
“When you deal with an individual in traditional law enforcement, whether it’s a call for service, or a call to a report, or I’m writing a ticket, or an accident report– more often than not, that’s the only interaction I’m ever going to have with that person,” Hardin explained. “When you're on a college campus or high school campus, you really have the opportunity to become engaged with the community and become engaged with the students. You really have the ability to make a difference."
He says relationships create trust and understanding. In his time in Florida, he said he held many student seminars to gauge the campuses' needs.
“What I’m going to try to do is to make sure that we tailor our services around what the staff and students need and what they want. Being engaged, making sure we’re part of the community. We're here to help you be successful in any way that we can,” Hardin said.
We spoke with students who say they just want more of a police presence, like Brown.
“A lot of the women on campus have times of the day where they don't feel quite as safe,” Brown said. “Especially this time of the year when it gets dark really early. Just making sure that you're up and ready and always alert."
Junior Soloman Ashu says their presence can help off campus too.
“Maybe downtown on weekends. I know a lot of people are drinking and many choose to walk back. So, maybe during that time, maybe somebody would be more susceptible to violent acts. It’d be nice to have police patrolling through,” Ashu said.
They say it helps more than you think, like Senior Chad Helton.
“One night, I was at the library and my tire pressure got low when I got back to my car. So, at 3 A.M. I’m pumping air into my tire in 40-degree weather. This nice GCPD officer was like, ‘Hey, are you okay? Do you need any help?’,” Helton said. “Examples of that where that officer came to check on me and stuff is just a really good form of community-based policing that I think the campus should try and keep."
Senior Sydnni Adams says it’s those kinds of things that matter.
“Just continuing to heavily patrol campus. Maybe doing surveys to see what else can be improved on campus. They’re always there for us. Just keeping us in the loop about everything that’s going on and just being a support system,” Adams said.
Hardin says he wants to create a student committee that meets monthly to hear their concerns and come up with ways to improve campus safety. That includes meeting with student clubs, organizations, and government.
He says he'll also speak with the local law enforcement about concerns in the community.