By Keaslie Monroe Staff Writer
As of the fall semester, the NTCC Police Department has received certification from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement and is fully up and running. The police department is currently operating as a hybrid model with four security guards working alongside Police Chief Russell Radke. The NTCC board also approved to fill the sergeant position at their November board meeting.
NTCC President Dr. Ron Clinton said, ¡°Moving from a security model to a certified police department provides NTCC with a more highly trained police force.¡± Clinton said the first two years will operate as a hybrid setup, which will mean slowly hiring police officers to work with the armed security officers before eventually moving to a full-time police department.
Radke said the current hybrid model has been structured in a way that works best for the entire college population. ¡°Police will be on campus while the largest number of people are on campus to maximize protection for the most people while security will continue to work those other shifts when the police officers aren¡¯t here, but we will also implement a call-out system,¡± Radke said.
This means that if a non-emergency issue requiring a police officer occurs, the security guards will reach out to the on-call officer. However, if an emergency is in progress, security would call both 911 and the on-call officers so that assistance can arrive as soon as possible.
In an article printed in The Eagle last spring, Clinton said the idea to create a police department came about after listening to the concerns and recommendations from the campus community.
¡°With the level of concern not just at our campus, but really all over the country because of situations that have occurred, we began to seriously talk about that idea of putting together a police department that would actually be able to respond to certain situations immediately as opposed to relying on our local sheriff¡¯s office and various departments,¡±Clinton said.
The college board made the decision to hire Radke last spring. He started with the college full time in May and worked throughout the summer and fall to get the department set up.
With the new police department, individuals can expect that some changes will be seen on campus. The first according to Clinton will be that ¡°our police force will provide an increased layer of security and accelerated response times.¡±
The second of those is visibility. As more police officers are hired, they will be more visible in their blue uniforms around campus and their marked police cars will also be seen more often.
Radke said that along with learning technical skills for their future jobs, students are also learning life skills. In this way, he said he wants to promote education when it comes to dealing with interactions with the police officers. Radke said he wants the college to remain ¡°a safe learning environment for students.¡±