The first 20 years of my career, I was based in Natchitoches, LA. Natchitoches is the home of Northwestern State University, a state college that, at that time, educated approximately 5000 students. It was mainly a teacher college. It is also my alma mater, where I did both undergrad and graduate work.
During the late 80s, I was asked by the Sociology Department to adjunct a class on Tuesday evenings. Introduction to Probation and Prole. One Tuesday I was working an investigation, probably a Pres-Sentence investigation, and realized that i had to go over to the college to teach. I grabbed my lesson plan, went over, climbed the stairs to the third floor and started the lesson.
In just a few minutes, I glanced toward the door and saw the Deputy Chief of the University Police in the doorway.
He looked at me, grinned, and said, "Oh, it's you."
I asked, perplexed, "Who are you looking for?"
"We got a report of some guy in a white shirt and tie coming in here with a big magnum on his hip."
University Police, in Louisiana at least, a fully trained, certified law enforcement officers with the same standards of training as the local, parish (county), or state police. They have a tough job on a very narrow beat. In this case they got a report of a man with a gun, rolled on the report and satisfactorily concluded it within minutes.
I don't know what standards Rhode Islan has for their University Police, but the Brown shooting does not engender confidence. There are a lot of questions being asked, with very few answers. Law enforcement is tougher now, simply due to the amount of technology available. Security cams, dash cams and vest cams are ubiquitous, but require funding, maintenance and monitoring. Equipment and manpower costs. These are challenges that every police agency struggles with. These are challenges that every police administrator has to deal with.
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