Safety is a hot topic issue in the United States and has been for several years, especially safety on campus.
Charles Gift, the Director of Public Safety and the Chief of Police at Sinclair, reassures students that not only is Sinclair a safe college, but that officers are well trained and well prepared for any incident.
“I think we are the safest place in Southwest Ohio. Not just campus wise, but if you compare our crime statistics to any of the cities in this area, they are very very low,” Gift said.
Sinclair officers have high training and are also police officers who are sworn in. In 2016, they hired four police officers. For every 832 students, there is one police officer.
“The Sinclair police officers are highly trained. First of all, there are sworn police officers, so they get the same initial training as say, the Dayton Police Department as far as basic police training. And then, as Sinclair officers, we train specifically for active shooter type scenarios or any emergency that would cause a problem for students, faculty or staff,” Gift said.
Some of the training involved for Sinclair officers is with the Dayton Police Department and the FBI.
“We also participate annually in an active shooter training with the Dayton Police Department, SWAT team, hostage team and the Dayton Fire Department and the rescue task force. All of the supervisors have also attended a 24 hour FBI supervisory course on how to deal with active shooters,” Gift said.
According to Gift, the Sinclair police are ready for any potential incident that may pose a danger to students.
“The Sinclair police mission is to provide a safe and secure learning environment for students, faculty and staff through professionalism, honesty, integrity and accountability. So, as part of that, is our training and all the officers have attended a course given by the Ohio Peace Officers Training Commission which is called active shooter training for law enforcement and higher education,” he said.
According to Gift, it is important for all students to be aware of their surroundings and to educate themselves about where they can go if they are in danger or need help.
“Campus safety is the responsibility of everybody on campus, not just the police, so you need to know your surroundings and you need to pay attention to what we put out and you need to familiarize yourself with the 40 blue lights around campus.”
Gift also said that students would be made aware of any emergency dealing with an active shooter and that they would receive instructions as to what they should do.
“The students would be initially notified through our emergency broadcast system. We have 1500 loud speakers on campus which are attached to our fire alarm. However, you don’t have to activate the fire alarm. The dispatcher can go into the system and make emergency announcements and that’s what we would use initially to tell everybody of a situation. We would tell them what to do,” he said.
Gift advises all students to sign up for a program called NIXLE, where all emergency notifications will be texted to the student’s phone.
He also advises students to watch a video about active shooters on campus called “See Something, Say Something.” It’s located on the Sinclair police website. The video explains exactly what students should do if there’s an active shooter type situation, or if there’s a person with a knife.
“We use the saying “Get out, call out, hide out and take out” which is the same basic principles, but we added the call out because we want people to call. The way the Sinclair campus is set up, especially one through 12, you could actually go all the way to Building 13. A shooter could start in Building 7 and go through every building.”
Gift wants students to call out if an active shooter is moving. “It’s very important to watch that video. It tells you exactly what to do. And that should make people feel safer when they know what to do as opposed to not knowing what to do.”
On December 19, Governor Kasich signed a bill into law that would permit firearms to be carried on college campuses at the approval of the Board of Trustees of the college.
Gift said that the Sinclair Police would faithfully carry out whatever decision was made for Sinclair Community College.
“That’s a decision that the Board is going to have to make and they are going to do that after they get input from several different sources and whatever decision the board makes, the Sinclair Police will carry it out,” he said.
The Sinclair Police Department has also teamed up with Student and Community Engagement, to plan “Coffee with a Cop” events that let students get to know officers both at Sinclair and Dayton.
“We like to use community based police here at Sinclair and we like students to know the officers and we like the officers to know the students because it’s more likely that somebody will come and talk to an officer about a crime or if they see something suspicious if they know that officer.”
Gift encourages all students to report if they see something suspicious, even if it turns out to be nothing.
“We would rather have a thousand calls where somebody thinks they saw something suspicious and it turns out to be nothing than to miss that one call that was something.”
For any students who have any questions or concerns, they can talk to a campus police officer or stop by their office in Building 7.
Laina Yost
Managing Editor