 HPC judges welcome back. Thank you for watching and for listening. I'm Jerry Carter your host today our distinguished guest is Terence Calloway He is the assistant vice president of safety and the chief of police at Florida A&M University And this is a really big conversation to have because for the first time I think this will provide an in-depth opportunity for me to speak with you know one of the many brothers and sisters nationwide who work on HPCU campuses and And and really really consider public safety to be a part of the academic and matriculation mission So chief Calloway we I appreciate you having you on today, man. Thank you for having me You guys had a pretty big announcement this week a third accreditation for your department at FAMU and you guys are one of if not the only Black College Police Department to have this series of Accreditations, can you talk about it and what that means in terms of the value and the the performance of your department at A&M? well You are correct. We are the only HPCU in the world that has three accreditations under their body But it was Man, it wasn't a smooth ride. I would say that and may the assessors came to our department and They tore us to pieces but our resiliency and The hard work and dedication of the men and women that worked for the Florida A&M University Police Department paid off We didn't take rejection well We went back to the drawing board to see what we can do how we can fix our policies and Just a numerous numerous things that we can do to make ourselves better because at the end of the day If we are better as a police agency then we can provide a better service to the FAMU community Which includes our students faculty staff and the community? having accreditation or having a accreditation to our Portfolio is is an amazing feat but to have three is something that's never been done before and with that what it allows Us to do it allows us to be transparent to make sure that our community knows that we have their best interest in hand It allows us to to have policies and everyone on the same page in a court of what these policies can do It eliminates our officers and myself included from having these Unwanted lawsuits because we're adhering to what's in our policy and the policies just They've been vetted through National organizations and international organizations so Therefore, we know these policies are things that work because they're working across the country at different universities and colleges and we are proud to Be a part of the eye Kalea Kalea and state accreditation family When you think about You mentioned the hard work that goes into accreditation I think most folks that think about accreditation think about it from an institutional perspective Do you have enough money? Do you have a plan for it for students to be enrolled into to graduate? Do you have the right kind of faculty? Do you have the right kind of board and governance structure? Is it is it like that for police or what are kind of describe some of the standards that it takes to to acquire? And accreditation let alone three Well, it's everything that you just mentioned first and foremost, man. You have to have A department that's willing to make these sacrifices But you also need with us a leadership of our president dr. Larry Robinson and Our vice president student affairs who's my boss dr. William Hudson These were things that we spoke about prior to me coming to family or prior to me accepting the job And these were goals that we wanted to make sure that we can accomplish So Whatever goals that we had set, you know, they've been kind enough to make sure that we had the resources to make these goals go and We've been very fortunate man. And when we've made some sacrifices in terms of time We made sacrifices in terms of effort But you need the backing of the the university leadership But the biggest component for us is the input from our students in our community We as the police department consider our day and make policies that's beneficial to us But we wanted to have some input from our students So we met with our student government and we had been meeting with our student government leaders We've met with faculty and staff to kind of get some input from them on what they would like to see within our police department and then we put all of this together and It worked out tremendously for us and we're proud to have that and Now you know here on the highest of seven hills It's just amazing at what what our students can do and the encouragement that they have for our police department so we've dubbed all of them as You know deputies for the family police department So when they see some we expect them to say something to us and that report has made things so much better on our campus, man Talk about that that that process Because if you know, we're being frank and you and I were students before we you know, we had careers. There's a certain Narrative about police and not only just on the campus, but in the community, right? And and I think my campus is mostly oh, man, they get ready put a ticket on my car and they're gonna stop me from smirking Right, but there's an awareness building that wouldn't when students have faith that when I call you're gonna come You're gonna treat me fairly You're gonna assess situations and you have my safety in mind. How do you build that trust in that relationship with the student body? So for me and with our department it Again, it's putting in that time When I first arrived on campus again, I stated prior to me taking this job I or prior to me starting I should say I came here and it was hot and I I've never been in Florida for a long period of time and that heat was something else, man but I was standing on on at the quad and It was student freshman orientation there are thousands of parents and students walking about the campus and I was there about three and a half hours one day about three four hours the next day and I just started reaching out to Falka T anybody who would listen to me I think they probably thought I was crazy, but I wanted to get an understanding of what is it that you expect from your police Department, what is the police department doing that they shouldn't be doing? What should they be doing that they're not doing and You know, how is it that we can make your matriculation through this this this university a safe one? Because let's face it man. We've done our due diligence in terms of children going to school We know from an academia aspect what universities will present to our students, but as a parent Your biggest concern is how safe is my child from one building to the next? And then standing out there for those seven and a half eight hours for two days I saw one police and I knew then we had to make some changes. So when I came in We I Got the buy-in from the officers. We started exiting our cars walking through buildings Interacting with these students having reports and then someone said to me one day Chief we see crime is up because our reports is up. I Said negative our crime isn't up What is up is to report that these officers now have with students and the students having the faith in the officers to call them You know at one point even when we was in school, I'm probably much older than you But no one had faith in in a campus police person They wanted to talk to the city police or the county police. So we had to work relentlessly to get our students to understand that we're here for them and When we established this report and they saw that we was trustworthy they saw that we were approachable they started doing more things with us and having more trust in us and Each time we created some program. We had some input from students and Like a prime example for us was we created our own transportation system here at fam We no longer was with the city in terms of transportation for our students We bought our own shuttles but we met with student government and other students and we allowed them to get on the bus and we Used their input to generate the stops for the bus To them that made all the difference in the world And I do all of the freshman orientations Speakings with parents and whatever the case might be and I give every parent and every student my phone number and Most people say that's crazy But if you live in Maryland and you have a kid going to school at Tallahassee and you get these alerts that says a Burglary just took place on our campus when you're 700 miles away. You only can think the worst But when you can pick up the phone and call the chief of police and have some reassurance that everything is okay It makes you feel better as a as a parent And that's what we're here for man And you make an excellent point particularly when people on the outside look at crime statistics You know, there's a lot of you know debate in the federal government about you know sexual assault and crime and what you know How does the Department of Education manage that how our student? What is the school's responsibility in that? But I think it all it all starts with Did the idea of Managing not just your campus community But the periphery of the community and how students are interacting when they walk off the campus how much pressure or how much obligation I don't I'm not sure of the right word But what is the what is the role and responsibility of fam used the police department in the surrounding Tallahassee community in terms of students being aware of Where to be and how to get there and In the unfortunate cases of actually dealing with crimes that may happen off campus or crimes that come on to the campus What how do you guys deal with that and try to set a narrative for fam? You is still safe despite what might be going on around us. So you were correct and the word pressure You were correct in the word obligation As a police chief the pressure is on you regardless to where you are if you had no Carolina and T You at Spellman more house the pressure is still on you because it's your responsibility to make sure that the students That's on your campus is safe and the people that comes on your campus is safe So I would say one it starts with education and training If we're educating our students about what could happen We're training them and preparing them for what may happen that helps Tremendously the other thing is Establishing mutual aid agreements with the local police departments on Tallahassee the city of city of Tallahassee I should say Leon County Florida State Police We all work hand-in-hand to make sure that we're doing things to keep our students safe We also have adapted what we call a live safe app. So students have that opportunity to Download this app. They can send stuff to us anonymously They can it has like a tracking system on it that they can activate So we work collectively to try to make sure that these students are safe So our police department is constantly going into the dorms speaking to students when we're out Engaging the students on a call other day. Someone talk about community policing. I'm not against community police And I just use a different word for it my my terminology for this community involvement Because on a campus level, I've had the pleasure of working both in the city as a traditional police department a police officer and I've worked at a university police the two are different and You know when you're here you have to Engage with the students find out what they're doing talk to them If you are a person that don't want to engage or speak with students probably shouldn't work on a college campus But this is about because we're not running from call to call So when you go to these cars, you have a little more time to interact You have a little more time to talk they get an opportunity to know you And as a chief of police, it's my responsibility to make sure that students walk out here to walk out of our university with a degree And not with a criminal record that becomes very important because when you look at What's taking place in our society today? most people have very little faith and trust in the police And 99% of the police are actually doing a good job that 1% speaks volumes for an entire organization and People talk about the incidents that has taken place this year But no one talks about the officer that risked his life in new york to save a young lady in a pond and he drowned Like no one talks about that but they talk about the negativity of the police and that's a small fraction of who we are Let's let's talk about the the role of public safety and specifically policing as a enrollment management function um, because I think that when you're when you're in A metropolitan area or a rural before that fact when you get a whole bunch of people together you might have some problems That's just the human condition. Um, but you do you have to be cognizant of How you kind of administer Rules and and engage with students knowing that if if you if you're holding to the letter of the law They may have broken a law and may get thrown out of school for that Do you guys Have conversations or or have you know ideas about What policing means in terms of the enrollment management situation at fam? so a good friend of mine he In speaking he often said there's a difference between and I can't say it exactly like him But he said there's a difference of being the polis and the polis And when I heard that I'm like what the heck does that mean? But when you're on these college campuses, man You know your your job isn't to take every student to jail You know your job is to make sure that and we've all been in school and we've all had some learning experiences and some of those experience could be just detrimental to African-Americans in some aspect. So You know some things I mean when they're felonies Yeah, you don't have as much room to wiggle with the law, but mr. Meaners if someone has two joints You know on the street as a municipality police you very well can take them to jail, but at a university setting you know You know we want to send them to judicial affairs Have them have some type of rehabilitation why they at school and part of our Rehabilitation program is they have to come down here sit and talk to me for an hour But And most students recognize the mistakes that they made And I found when you speak to them as opposed to talking at them It makes a huge difference If you treat people if you treat these students like human beings They will it makes a whole a whole Bunch it makes sense so on so many levels man, and I think that's where As administrator as officers and I'm very passionate about this as you can see like I've had students call me Who graduated in 2014? Oh chief, I'm getting married. You know come to my well. I'm not coming all the way to Cincinnati for a wedding I can see you but just the fact that these students still remember you And that says a lot so it's it's about getting out talking to these students sitting in the cafeteria with them having Some type of lunch. I go to the basketball games football games. I even ride with the band Like I'm probably the only police chief in the history of fam you that's ever Chaperone the marching 100 somewhere And do I have to know but I do it one man because we're serious about the safety of what takes place But it gives me opportunities to interact with these three 400 students as a part of the band And I think that's important and if you think this job is nine to five It's probably not the job for you because I'm here at night when the Greeks having Something I'm here when other organizations having something and that's what it that's the role of a police chief On a hbcu campus for sure because you can can relate to what's taking place You can feel it. You were that person at some point Steve Callaway, we appreciate it. Congratulations on the accreditation And all the success that you guys are having in the hard work that you're putting in to keep students faculty staff Alumni when they come back safe on campus. We appreciate your time, brother. Look forward to the next one. All right. Thank you very much. Same to you