Bridging the Gap Podcast

[00:00:00] Darryn Chenault: We're back for another episode of Bridging the Gap today. Obviously you're going to notice that my co host is not here today. She's fighting a illness, but we're going to continue on. I hope she feels well and I'm sure shortly she'll be back. So I'm going to miss her and all that good stuff. 

Today we're going to dive right into it. We're going to talk about some things through IACLEA and we're going to have a good conversation. 

I got some friends down from the state of Ohio, which I'm always happy to see, but we're going to start by introduction. So I'm going to start with John Dejarnette to my far right. If you can tell us a little bit about yourself, where you came from and how you got here. 

 

[00:00:41] John Dejarnette: All right, thanks, Darryn. Yeah, as he said, I'm John Dejarnette. I'm the chief of staff here at UC Public Safety. I actually been here for 10, 11 years now. 

Came in 2015. I actually came to UC when my daughter went to college. When my daughter went to college, I went with her. And so she's since graduated and got her master's degree from uc. So I had some skin in the game when I first came here as far as safety concerns. And still I'm still here and she's long gone. 

 

[00:01:13] Darryn Chenault: So you came for the tuition remission yourself too, huh? 

 

[00:01:16] John Dejarnette: A little bit of that was one reason for sure. That was very nice benefit that UC blessed me with. 

 

[00:01:21] Darryn Chenault: So. Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. My next guest. 

 

[00:01:25] Ed Burkhammer: I'm Ed Burkhammer. I am the Director of Law Enforcement Services for the Office of Criminal Justice Services under the Department of Public Safety.  

A long title, but I'm a retired law enforcement officer and I oversee a couple of statewide initiatives that involve our local law enforcement agencies across the state.  

And we created the Ohio Collaborative Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, which we're here to talk about today. 

 

[00:01:56] Darryn Chenault: You know, Ed, with a lot, a long title, which you just said you had, comes a lot of responsibility. So I take it you got a lot of responsibility with that long title you got, huh? 

 

[00:02:05] Ed Burkhammer: Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, but it's a, it's good responsibility, right? 

 

[00:02:10] Darryn Chenault: I love it. 

 

[00:02:10] Ed Burkhammer: It's a passion. It's something I love to do. I'm blessed. And you know, I mean, honestly, I have to say this, you know, right up front is the we're blessed.  

We're all here because Leadership at Public Safety and The governor's office, Governor DeWine, are supporters of this and has pushed us all to take place and allowed it to take place. You know what I mean? 

 

[00:02:30] Darryn Chenault: I totally agree with you. Yeah, Totally agree. Charity. 

 

[00:02:33] Charity Detty-Wingo: Hi. 

 

[00:02:34] Darryn Chenault: How are you? 

 

[00:02:34] Charity Detty-Wingo: Good, good. My name is Charity Detty-Wingo. I am a program manager with on Ed's team. I've been given the opportunity to work with UCPD directly and their accreditation, and so I'm excited to work with them. 

 

[00:02:51] Darryn Chenault: See, Charity, I would have got your last name wrong, so I'm glad you said your last name. 

 

[00:02:54] Charity Detty-Wingo: I went hyphenated when I got married, so that's. It throws everybody off. 

 

[00:02:58] Darryn Chenault: All the viewers know I butcher a last name, so thank you for that. 

 

[00:03:02] Charity Detty-Wingo: You're welcome. 

 

[00:03:03] Darryn Chenault: Nikki. 

 

[00:03:04] Nicole Haberer: So I am Nicole Haberer. I am the Clery compliance specialist with Public Safety. I'm the only civilian and I've been here for. It'll be 25 years in December. 

 

[00:03:16] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome. That's awesome. You love it? 

 

[00:03:19] Nicole Haberer: I do. That's why I'm still here. 

 

[00:03:22] Darryn Chenault: I had to ask that question. Well, we're gonna dive right into it. I am. I'm kind of curious at this. UC has gone through an accreditation process like this before. Can you tell me a little bit about the history of accreditation here at the university and the agents? What are we getting from this? What's the agency gaining from this? John? 

 

[00:03:43] John Dejarnette: That's a good question. You know, I like to try to get people excited about accreditation. Sometimes it's hard, but I think if you look at it this way, especially from our audience, the University of Cincinnati is accredited, right? The university is accredited. And that's part of what gives the degree some oomph behind it. Right. If you say you got a degree from the University of Cincinnati, what does that mean? Right. Well, if you're accredited, that means there's rigorous standards about how we're teaching and those kind of things. That gives your degree that push behind it. Something behind it. And the same thing with hospitals. A lot of hospitals are accredited, and the same thing goes for that, is that if you got a choice between sending your loved one to an accredited hospital or not accredited hospital, which one are you going to choose? Right? And it's the same thing. There's rigorous standards about how they clean their surgery tools and just everything about it, the leadership and how they operate. And so with that being said, accreditation for police agencies is similar in the fact that there's an organization outside of the organization itself that develops standards, it's best practices in the game, and then they bring those standards to your organization and say, if you want to be accredited, you have to adhere to these. And so the key thing part of it is that they have the policies that address things like training and use of force and all these different areas of law enforcement. But then you also have to prove it. Right. You can't just say, well, we have this policy that says we do this, this and this and close the book. You got to show and demonstrate that those things are occurring in the way you say you're going to do it. 

 

[00:05:31] Darryn Chenault: Now, who comes down and checks this policy is this house or so. 

 

[00:05:35] John Dejarnette: Yeah. So anyway, yeah, they have what they call assessors that come in, and those are the people that come in and kind of lift the hood and look underneath and check the paperwork and look at your vehicles and look at your facilities and all that kind of stuff to make sure that it's not just a check the box.  

It's actually someone that comes in from outside your organizations and verifies what you do. And it's kind of that inspect what you expect idea. 

 

[00:06:04] Darryn Chenault: So I don't know if I missed this or not, but how long has the university had this accreditation? Has it been for years or has it been a short period of time? 

 

[00:06:14] John Dejarnette: So we were accredited by an organization called IACLEA, which is the International association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. 

 

[00:06:24] Darryn Chenault: That was a test for you, wasn't it?  

 

[00:06:26] John Dejarnette: Yeah, exactly. 

 

[00:06:26] Darryn Chenault:  it was a test for me. 

 

[00:06:27] John Dejarnette: Back in 2019, we got our first accreditation, so that was obviously something we were very proud of. And then we got reaccredited back in 2023. 

 So we've been reaccredited one time as well. So we've got a few years of experience now and it's become part of our culture to adhere to these standards. And that's the good thing when you achieve accreditation. But really the test is, can you make it part of your culture and the way you do business right now? 

 

[00:06:58] Darryn Chenault: Do you, I guess. Do you, are you doing this or do you bring people in like Nikki to help out? Or is this a collaboration of the whole department? 

 

[00:07:07] John Dejarnette: Yeah, so I, I, I was designated as the first accreditation manager, and since then I was promoted to chief of staff. So I've been wearing kind of two hats. But yes, I've part of my, as a leader, I want to be part of development of our staff. And so Nicole is fantastic. She's our Clery, as she said, she's our Clery compliance specialist. And what we want to do is make her the accreditation manager and Clery manager. So. But it's a Development piece. She's fantastic at what she does. She's our expert in Clery. And so soon she's going to be our expert in accreditation as well. And she's been fantastic. So. But yeah, so we, like I said about culture too, I'll throw this in real quick. That we have developed, you know, with my investigations lieutenant, with my community engagement lieutenant, with the property room manager, all those people, they know what's expected of them now in terms of accreditation. And now it's pretty much a well oiled machine in terms of they know what we need for accreditation, they do it, that they achieve it. And so early on it was kind of like holding their hand and that kind of thing. Now it's just again,it's become culture. It's the way we do business. 

 

[00:08:22] Darryn Chenault: Now, Nikki, if I can ask you real quick, ucpd, what do they hope to gain from this? I hear that he's bringing you into this fold. Correct? 

 

[00:08:31] Nicole Haberer: Yes. 

 

[00:08:31] Darryn Chenault: What is one thing that they would like to get out of this whole thing besides recognition? 

 

[00:08:36] Nicole Haberer: Well, making sure that we are doing things with best practice. We want to show everybody we're transparent, we're doing what we say we're going to do and just making sure that, you know, when we have a policy we are backing it and saying we actually are doing this to show. 

 

[00:08:58] Darryn Chenault: Oh, I get it. I totally get it. And you doing Clery stuff, actually we're going to have a show with you just by yourself. Because I know that's a different ball game. 

 

[00:09:06] Nicole Haberer: Sure is. 

 

[00:09:06] Darryn Chenault: Because when I got through the university and I came here, I didn't know what Clery was. Somebody had to sit me down and be like, what is this? 

So Ed, can you, can you kind of jump in and kind of help me out with the whole overall, with the accreditation and stuff like that. It's. How do you see yourself fitting into this whole thing? 

 

[00:09:24] Ed Burkhammer: Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for saying he talked about culture. Culture is so important and people overlook it. So I think you, you can tell leadership when you hear someone talk about culture because it's one of the most important things. So accreditation is a little bit. In Ohio. Ohio did not have a law enforcement accreditation program, which those of us in law enforcement, if you think about it, when we get into the field, we go to an academy, we get an Ohio police officer training academy certification. We have to do certain things to maintain that certification. But there's no requirement for agencies to maintain certain things. And if there are, there are very few. Right. They're Very random. And you know, there is national accreditation available, but only about 5% of the agencies in the country, law enforcement agencies, are able to meet national accreditation. And for a variety of reasons. And a few years back when I was trying to create this program for Ohio, that's one of the first things leadership in Ohio realized. We don't have this available in Ohio, and it's really needed for our local law enforcement agencies. As the state, we look at ourselves as that support network to the locals. We started talking about how that would look. And through some other networking, 

I've been in several places around the country, and I looked at what they were doing in other states and, and nationally on the national level, and I saw what I thought they were doing well, and I didn't think they were doing so well. 

 

[00:11:00] Darryn Chenault: Right. 

 

[00:11:01] Ed Burkhammer: And so then we did a national survey to see what are the barriers if a law enforcement agency wants to get into accreditation?

What are the first barriers you face? And the biggest three results we got were cost, time and personnel. 

 

[00:11:17] Darryn Chenault: You agree when you say cost, cost as far as. 

 

[00:11:22] Ed Burkhammer: So there is a financial cost to being in an accreditation program, and they're all a little bit different. But some require you have a membership fee, some require a membership application fee. Then there's an annual fee. Pardon me, Some require that you have a dedicated staff, which is then a salary component, salary and benefits component, that they have to be dedicated to that position. And then if I didn't mention annual fees, so you're constantly paying for that. Then John mentioned the assessors. So assessors are at an expense. So that is the expense of the locality to pay for that. So you have assessors come from somewhere, some come from across the country. So you're paying their travel per diem and rate for them to come in and evaluate and assess your agency. Right. So, you know, I mentioned it. Our leadership in Ohio understood that we can create a program like that and we can follow the pattern across the country or we can do it differently and do it bigger and better. So our first priority is it's free. 

 

[00:12:31] Darryn Chenault: And that's where I was going to get to, because when you said it comes with a cost, you know, the smaller departments, they're going to struggle with that cost. So I get it that we're very blessed at the University of Cincinnati because we're a university and we're thriving and all that good stuff.  

But for the smaller departments, how does that impact them? Charity? 

 

[00:12:52] Charity Detty-Wingo: I mean, we're readily available to them. We're not only offering the program for free. We, the operating system that we use to manage their, their files is free. That was developed, started development on that what, two years ago. And as I was hired on two years ago, so I kind of seen that all the way through.  

We do agency visits. We do the one on one help agencies through any other accreditation program you're going to. That's going to be a cost again associated with that. We're given that opportunity to do anytime that we need to or the agency needs us to within, you know, our availability, they can call us. I mean. 

 

[00:13:36] Darryn Chenault: Yeah, I got you. 

 

[00:13:37] Charity Detty-Wingo: So I mean, and we offer the same services from the very smallest agency with one person that we do for 7-800 people. 

 

[00:13:45] Darryn Chenault: Okay. 

 

[00:13:46] Charity Detty-Wingo: It doesn't deviate. 

 

[00:13:47] Darryn Chenault: That kind of hit me when he said calls because I know I left a small department and they, you know, they're in shambles and you wonder how they can kind of afford all this stuff because like I said, I know John and his staff does a great job at the university as far as bringing people in and mom and dads and students and faculty and staff. They should be proud of this because this is something to lean their hat on. So what, what's the unique. 

 

[00:14:11] John Dejarnette: Can I add one more thing about cost? Another thing that can be a cost is facilities because they're standards. You know, like for example, property rooms is a big example where, you know, we know how important it is when someone has evidence that it follows the chain of custody to get to court. You know, if it's evidence against me, I want to make sure that it was, you know, handled properly and all that. Well, there's a lot of standards behind that, the security of property and that kind of thing. Well, you know, if you have to do those things to build a secure property room, that can be some, some cost associated with that.  

And one of these accrediting bodies say if you're going to have a property room, you need to do A, B, C and D. Well, that's, you know, that's cost. So it could be cost of personnel, facilities, that kind of thing, to at least be at that standard. So that's another potential cost issue. 

 

[00:15:00] Darryn Chenault: Didn't realize that. What makes your program so unique in comparison to other states? 

 

[00:15:06] Ed Burkhammer: A lot of things. 

 

[00:15:08] Darryn Chenault: Brag a little bit. This is your turn to brag. 

 

[00:15:10] Ed Burkhammer: Listen, I mean when I say I really did a deep dive into what's available nationally and, and I one of my other positions, I served as the president of a, of a national organization called AccredNet and that's actually represents every state director in the country that runs programs like we have. And so I have a good, you know, inside information to what's, what's going well in their, their programs and what's not. And, and I'm going to go right back to again, cost. So the very first burden that Ohio's leadership erased was the need to run it as a, for a pro, a profit. Like we don't have to do that. And so we eliminate those costs right away. The other thing that they have done, this is unique is that again, my bosses don't get in my way and they let me have all these crazy ideas we come up with when we're out there. And she's talking to an agency and she's. To your point, the small agency. She's talking to a small agency and they don't have their property room is in shambles or whatever it is and they don't have resources. They just can't write a check to fix this. We provide the resources to fix that and we have created a network across the state at no cost that's big and that's expanding every day. By the way, we're still, we're not sitting on our laurels. We're growing these resources every day. Charity and her teammates position is extremely unique in this country. So an agency could hire an outside person who's a subject matter expert to come in higher cost. 

 

[00:16:52] Darryn Chenault: Right. 

 

[00:16:53] Ed Burkhammer: And have them come in and give you advice. We provide that at no cost to the agency. 

 

[00:16:57] Darryn Chenault: So Charity has her own team? 

 

[00:16:59] Ed Burkhammer: she's a member of the team now this is part of the team.  So the program manager, Charity gets assigned to an agency. So UCPD is her agency in our eyes and, and their job, they're building this relationship that if we can help, we don't say no, we don't say here's the book. And this is the limit of our resources. We come in and we say where can we help and where can we go with it? Now before I forget, I want to comment that what we get back is this is a partnership with UC. Okay.  

So this is not just us coming in and doing this. We're going to learn from them. We learn from every agency we deal with because they're unique. UCPD's unique.

Your university police department, large agency and you're talking about small agencies. We want. I'm a believer that I don't care if you're a police officer in a five officer department.  Our citizens deserve to have a great police officer. Absolutely right. I agree with that. Not just a UC accredited police officer, whatever village, township, city in this state, you deserve to have a good police officer. And we also owe a debt to our police officers. We hire them, tell them we're going to take care of them, train them or protect them. And then we fail in that in a lot of ways. Right. So this is a way to give them guidance as well. 

 

[00:18:20] Darryn Chenault: And the special thing you said about that is we have a lot of kids come from a lot of different places at the university, so some are already terrified of law enforcement in general when they get here and they don't trust us. So what you just said is huge. I mean, putting the number one person out there to handle these situations is why you guys come into play and kind of help us with that whole thing. So that's huge. I appreciate you saying that. John, you once again, you talked about, you know, having this relationship and building this relationship and you and your team, Nicole, you guys kind of work on things. What's the hardest thing about doing this whole accreditation, like when you work with your team? Is it. 

 

[00:19:02] John Dejarnette: I don't know that I would say anything is hard. Sometimes it is difficult to help people understand because sometimes you can feel like people can get in the rut of. Well, let's just check the box. And one of the examples I like to illustrate is several years ago when I got involved in accreditation, one of the requirements is that you do an annual use of force review. Right? And it's not just every use of force gets investigated and looked at on a one on one basis, like, you know, was this justified? Did we use the training, did we adhere to policies, all those things. But most agencies wouldn't take a global look at the end of the year and say, okay, we had seven uses of force and you know, this many was, you know, use of this weapon and this was that and this, you know, and what was the racial makeup?

Was there a trend, you know, anything that we can do for training? Right. And so, so one of my stories I like to tell is when we looked at a global look at uses of force, we realized that when we had injuries and uses of force, a lot of people think it's going to be like using an ASP baton or pepper spray or tasers or all this stuff. It was actually in a takedown. So an officer or a citizen was hurt in a takedown. And at the time you're. It was interesting, you know, how much training we did on takedowns when we were doing our use of force training. 

 

[00:20:28] Darryn Chenault: Uh oh, uh, oh,  

 

[00:20:29] John Dejarnette: zero.  

 

[00:30:50] Darryn Chenault I knew it was coming, uh, oh. 

 

[00:32:13] John Dejarnette: So, you know, as leadership team, we look at that and we say, okay, this is clear that this is where people are getting hurt. How can we change that? 

And so we immediately implemented some takedown training, how to do it safely, so that in those moments when that happens, hopefully citizens, like he said about the best police officer showing up at the scene, he's trained in how to do a safe takedown. And hopefully he's not. He's not getting. He or she's not getting hurt. The citizens are not getting hurt. And we hopefully, when we look at the. When we do our use of force review the following year, hopefully that number has come down. And that's how we say, were we effective? You know, and that kind of thing. And that's the spirit of accreditation is, okay, we do a lot of good things. How can we do it better?  

And I think that's sometimes a difficulty to convey to others that, you know, that's why we do what we do. It's not a check the box is to do better. 

 

[00:21:29] Darryn Chenault: So when I first got to uc, that takedown that I had was not appropriate, I take it.  

 

[00:21:34] John Dejarnette: Probably not the one you Darryn.  

 

[00:21:36] Darryn Chenault: Okay. We do some work because I thought it was a great takedown. 

 

[00:21:40] John Dejarnette: That's why. There's another thing in accreditation called remedial training. 

 

[00:21:43] Darryn Chenault: I hear you on that. And no, by the way, I did not do a takedown. I kind of rely on my verbal cues to get me through things. So Charity or Ed, how many agencies have you accredited in this program and how many are currently in the process of getting accredited? And I know that's a broad number. 

 

[00:22:08] Ed Burkhammer: So this is a. So we run certification program as well. So certification was created, and we actually started certifying agencies in 2016. It was created by executive order in 2015 and then.  But we didn't actually start the accreditation program until two years ago under Governor DeWine. And so we have gone at lightning speed in the creation of it, the development of it. Like, I mean, we didn't even have a staff that was able to, you know, do it at the time. So I was, you know, we were creating the program and. And writing out what we needed and doing everything and hiring people at the same time. And I was very picky about how we brought people in, but. But in that time frame. So since 2024, and I'll tell you, it was March 21st of 2024, we had our event with Governor DeWine. That was our launch. 

So here we are. We're less than 24 months later, in our phase one, in phase one of our accreditation, we did 10 agencies. We kind of tested the waters with 10 agencies, and we picked them from around the state, and they're from various backgrounds, various sizes, various resource allocation. So we wanted to make sure. My goal has always been. Our goal has always been make this program fit every law enforcement agency in Ohio that has the culture that is willing to make change. Right. And if they're willing to try, we're willing to try. So we did 10 agencies in that first phase. And then. And we have now at our November board meeting, we had six agencies reach accredited status. And then next week, actually, we have eight more agencies going before the board. If the board favorably votes for those eight agencies, that six from November and eight from this next week will be on the stage with us. In April, we run an annual conference, by the way, it's called the Pathways to Excellence Summit. 

It's called Pathways to Excellence because we are belief that we're constantly on that pursuit. 

 

[00:24:11] Darryn Chenault: Okay. It was his vision. Huh? 

 

[00:24:13] Charity  Detty-Wingo: Tell them about your vision? 

 

[00:24:14] Ed Burkhammer: We're constantly on that pursuit of, you should always, in your career and your personal life and your family, you should be on a career of path to excellence. Right. And that's something that we strive for. And we also realize we're never going to achieve perfection. 

 

[00:24:29] Darryn Chenault: Right. But that's the goal. 

 

[00:24:30] Ed Burkhammer: But that's the goal, like. And you have to be open to it and change. But that's. So the long story to your answer is, so that'll put us at 26 agencies.  

And in the process, we have quite a list. I think part of it. One of the things I'm most heartened by is that leaders like this all over the state are reaching out and saying, come judge us. 

 

[00:24:56] Darryn Chenault: Leaders like, oh, John DeJarnette. Oh, okay. Over here. Okay. I just wanted to be clear. JOHN DeJarnette, CHIEF OF STAFF this guy. 

 

[00:25:06] Ed Burkhammer: But I mean. Okay, but I do mean that we have chiefs and sheriffs from all over the state. We have lieutenant sergeants, patrol officers reaching out and saying every day we want our department to be great. And I say it means a lot for an agency to open their doors to criticism that they don't have to open their doors to. 

 

[00:25:24] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome. 

 

[00:25:26] Ed Burkhammer: That's leadership to me. Right. And I'm so proud of Ohio's law enforcement, because if we go back 10 years, this was also. It was a different atmosphere. And, you know, we had a number of leaders across the state who felt like that. But I think in today, in 2026, we have a overwhelming number of law enforcement leaders who want to be great. 

 

[00:25:47] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome. I mean, that's. That's something that you want to hear. And don't get me wrong, I know we joke all the time, but from our chief all the way down, Chief Eliot Isaac, to John Dejarnette, all the way down to the patrolman or security, I think everybody wants to lead and that's. But they get it from the top, though. So, Charity, what's the number one thing? I know we may be running out of time here, but what's the number one thing that you love about your job?  

Like, what stands out? I mean, something wakes you up every day and says, hey, I want to do this. 

 

[00:26:19] Charity Detty-Wingo: The agencies I work with, absolutely, hands down, them. I develop these relationships with these agencies, and they're my friends. They're not just, I work with this agency or that work with that agency. It's the relationships that I get to build with these agencies all over the state. I'm fortunate enough to have agencies from a five man agency to a thousand man agency. So I get all different perspectives and develop different relationships with different agencies.  

And I love that. That's my very favorite. 

 

[00:26:52] Darryn Chenault: That's beautiful, John. I'm a parent. We're gonna wrap this up here. And I, Kelly, used to get on me a lot. Cause when I say I'm wrapping it up, that means another 10 minutes. I'm a parent of two daughters who goes to the school here at the university. And I know we talked about a lot, accreditation and all this stuff.  

What if you're talking to me as a parent, what's making me feel so good about this whole picture of accreditation and everything that you guys are doing at the university and working with the good people at the state? Like, 

 

[00:27:23] John Dejarnette: Yeah, it kind of comes full circle to what I started with, you know, when I talked about a hospital or, you know, the university.  

And that accreditation piece is just, you know, if you're sending your loved ones out to, you know, you're trusting us with your children when you send them to college.  

Right. And so you want to know that the people that are out there looking after them are just top quality. And so, you know, that's what we try to be, is that top quality. And I do get it because like I said, I had a daughter that went here and, you know, she was out, you know, at parties and, you know, all the things that college kids do. And so I wanted, you know, it was good to know that there's Officers out there that are fully trained and on the lookout for any indicators that where safety. Her safety might be compromised. So that's what I would say. 

 

[00:28:15] Darryn Chenault: Ed, Charity, anything you will share with the good people at the University of Cincinnati. As far as faculty, staff, and parent? 

 

[00:28:21] Ed Burkhammer: you know, I'll just. I'll reiterate that they should be proud. I'm also a parent who sent my kids off to college, right. And I had these fears. Pardon me.  

I had these exact same fears. And I think it means a lot to a parent that shows that as a university, you take it seriously, that you realize you're taking on their kids their most precious item. Right? And crime can happen anywhere. But we have to do our give every resource to be the best police department we can be to not only protect them, but then on the other side, we also have to give our police officers the best chance of being good police officers. Right? And if we don't give them that proper guidance and support and take care of their mental wellness and you know what I mean with some things we didn't do in the past comes out of accreditation, all that creates that culture and an environment here that's better to safe place to put your kids. 

 

[00:29:24] Darryn Chenault: That's huge. He said it all. 

 

[00:29:27] Charity Detty-Wingo: He said it all. 

 

[00:29:28] Darryn Chenault: He said it all. Nikki, you excited about all this? I hear you're gonna be the one that putting a lot of the stuff on here at the university. 

 

[00:29:36] Nicole Haberer: I'm excited. I'm glad and eager to add to my resume of what I can do. And there's a lot of organization, and I love my organization so. 

 

[00:29:46] Darryn Chenault: I've seen you work and you do a lot too. Don't get me wrong. You stand out. 

 

[00:29:51] John Dejarnette: She's fantastic. 

 

[00:29:52] Darryn Chenault: No doubt. And that's coming from your leader. That's coming from your leader. So we appreciate everybody's time today. And like I said, I know you guys are coming from Columbus, and thank you for coming down. Safe travels, going home. Definitely want to say thanks to 1819 Innovation Hub for having us today to talk about all the good things that IACLEA is doing and. And the way the university is taking off in so many different directions. So we love you, appreciate you to our fans, thank you for watching and tune in for the next time.

---

[00:00:00] Darryn Chenault: Happy New Year! We're back. 

2026. We're here with Bridging the Gap. I am your host, Darryn Chenault and I'm here with 

[00:00:09] Kelly Cantwell: Kelly Cantwell. 

[00:00:12] Darryn Chenault: How you doing, Kelly? 

[00:00:13] Kelly Cantwell: I'm doing great. How are you, Darryn? 

[00:00:14] Darryn Chenault: I'm doing well. 2026. I'm awesome. 

[00:00:17] Kelly Cantwell: Lovely. 

[00:00:18] Darryn Chenault: We are here with two rock stars today. I love it. I love it. We're here with miss, it warms my heart to say this, Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas. 

[00:00:30] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Thank you. 

[00:00:31] Darryn Chenault: Along with Noah. 

I'm messing it up already, Rezene. 

[00:00:36] Noah Rezene: You got it. 

[00:00:38] Darryn Chenault: Two people that help us out in public safety and life is good. But Kelly's gonna correct me. I promise you, in 2026, she's not gonna correct me. So with that being said, Kelly, I'm gonna let. 

[00:00:50] Kelly Cantwell: Let them introduce themselves? 

[00:00:52] Darryn Chenault: Yes. 

[00:00:53] Kelly Cantwell: Look at you. 

[00:00:54] Darryn Chenault: So we're going to start with Ms. Kawanda. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? 

[00:01:00] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Hello, I am Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas. I am a UC alumni. I'm over the DTS, Technical Operations, Public Safety IT. I have a long title. 

I've been with the university for 20, going on 23 years now. 

And yeah, I have under me, under my group of technical operations, I have the access control technicians, the intrusion alarms. 

Well, the access control technicians and the intrusion alarm folks are all the same people. So access control, intrusion alarms, and cameras. And then I also have Public Safety IT. 

[00:01:43] Darryn Chenault: So you do a lot? 

[00:01:45] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Yeah, my people do a lot. 

[00:01:46] Darryn Chenault: Well, you said with that long title. She said she had a long title. So that long title comes with a lot of responsibility. Wow. So who do you have with you today? 

[00:01:55] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: I have Noah Rezene with me. He is my project coordinator. 

[00:02:00] Darryn Chenault: Tell us a little bit about yourself, Noah. 

[00:02:02] Noah Rezene: Yeah, so I've been with the university for about two years now. A little bit over two years in my position. And as a project coordinator, I work really closely with folks both in Public Safety and DTS to get projects done, typically camera related projects and access control related projects. 

[00:02:20] Darryn Chenault: You guys are taking care of us? 

[00:02:22] Noah Rezene: Oh, yeah, you sure are. 

[00:02:23] Kelly Cantwell: you sure are. 

[00:02:24] Kelly Cantwell: However, you guys both mentioned dts. So tell us what DTS stands for and what. How does DTS and Public Safety, how do they work together? 

[00:02:34] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: So DTS is Digital Technology Solutions and is the department that's the central IT for all of the university. 

Recently, I guess it was 2023, I believe it was, we centralized all the different IT groups that are from the different colleges and different departments and all into one department. So DTS is that one department. They have over 400 full time employees from getting all those different groups and centralizing all into one unit. 

[00:03:08] Darryn Chenault: So are they throughout the whole campus or is that just with public safety. 

[00:03:13] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Throughout the whole campus? So say some of the colleges, they have their own IT folks, but those folks report to DTS, to management in DTS. 

So I used to report directly to Chief Isaac, but once they centralize, we're now under the information security group of Digital Technology Solutions. 

[00:03:36] Darryn Chenault: Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Noah, tell me this. I'm curious. How does DTS and public safety work together? 

I mean, how does that whole bond come together as it relates to cameras? 

[00:03:50] Noah Rezene: Well, as it relates to cameras, we work really closely with DTS, especially on the network side. So one important thing about placing a camera is that it has to be on  

UC's network. So making sure that we have available switches and that we can get network cabling to that location. So they really assist us with that portion. And then they also help us  

assign IP addresses to cameras and do things on the back end like that. 

[00:04:15] Darryn Chenault: Wow. Sounds like a great relationship. 

[00:04:18] Noah Rezene: Yeah, it's a great working relationship. 

[00:04:21] Darryn Chenault: That's way over my head. Kelly, when it comes to camera and technology it's like,  

[00:04:25] Kelly Cantwell: Yeah, technology is way over your head. 

[00:04:27] Darryn Chenault: It definitely is. Thank you for that. Yeah. Let everybody else. 

[00:04:32] Kelly Cantwell: I have to help you with your email a lot. 

[00:04:36] Darryn Chenault: You just let the whole world know that. And she does. And I'm proud of it. So that's what happens when you grow old. 

[00:04:46] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: I love it. 

[00:04:47] Kelly Cantwell: All right, so tell us. I feel like when we're. When I'm interacting with students, one of the things and parents, they want to know what goes into deciding where a camera is  

placed. 

[00:04:58] Noah Rezene: Oh so there are a few different factors that go into deciding exactly where a camera is placed. So we. Kawanda mentioned earlier, we work really closely as public safety it with

public safety.  So we'll look at recent crime trends and events that have occurred and try to get coverage in those locations. We also work really closely with the different units on  

campus, so different colleges to address their individual needs. So we have a work order system where people can go ahead and place a work order and we'll go out and assess the site to  

see exactly where cameras would be beneficial for them and where they can maximize their coverage. 

[00:05:37] Darryn Chenault: How long does that usually take? I'm just curious. 

[00:05:39] Noah Rezene: The process, it can really vary. There are a lot of different teams involved. So we're working closely with project services ourselves as DTS, outside vendors, and then the  

stakeholders themselves or the customer. So typically it can take anywhere between a month to two months. 

[00:05:59] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: And just to add on to what Noah was saying about the decisions on where we place cameras, one of the things that we've done recently is decide to  

put cameras on all the different entrances from the city streets. So we had a project going where anytime. So, like, onto Corry Boulevard or onto University Avenue, anywhere where people are 

coming from off the city streets, we have a camera somewhere nearby to kind of catch who's coming in and out of the campus. And then we also. Noah's working on a pretty big project  

where we're adding cameras to all the entrances of buildings. So then we can see who's coming in and out of buildings as well. 

[00:06:39] Darryn Chenault: Well, hold up every building. 

[00:06:43] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: That's what we're trying. 

[00:06:44] Noah Rezene: Every building. 

[00:06:45] Kelly Cantwell: How many buildings does the university have? 

[00:06:48] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: About a hundred and something. 

150? 160. 

[00:06:52] Darryn Chenault: That's a lot of cameras.

[00:06:53] Kelly Cantwell: Every entrance of every building is a lot of cameras. 

[00:06:55] Noah Rezene: It is. It'll be hundreds of cameras by the end of the project. 

[00:06:59] Kelly Cantwell: Your whole job,

[00:07:00] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: you probably wish it was, instead of having to deal with that and some other stuff. 

[00:07:07] Darryn Chenault: Wow, Noah. 

[00:07:09] Kelly Cantwell: So I want to circle back. You said one thing that I thought was really interesting. You talked about how you use crime data for determining camera locations. Can you dive a

little more into, like, how you work with UCPD and, you know, use that information? 

[00:07:28] Noah Rezene: Yeah. So we've actually did a large project where we mapped out all of our current cameras on campus, and with the help of UCPD's crime analyst, we were able to get a heat  

map of crime on campus and kind of overlay it on our site designer to see exactly where events were occurring, where we have cameras currently, and where we could use more coverage. 

[00:07:54] Darryn Chenault: That's nice. 

[00:07:56] Kelly Cantwell: That's awesome. 

[00:07:57] Darryn Chenault: I mean, how do you maintain these cameras? We're talking about a lot of. Or a lot of cameras on campus. I mean, help me out with the main. How do you maintain all 

 these cameras? Is it like a check? Do you guys. 

[00:08:10] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: So like we were saying before, I have a group of. We have a group of technicians. There are three of them, and a manager who basically watch the system. And  

 they do monthly reports of, you know, what cameras are online, what cameras are not, and then they just go and kind of repair if we need repairs. We also. We have a health check on our  

camera system so they can see different times where the cameras have gone, maybe offline and come back on.  We also do firmware updates so we can have the latest and greatest 

 software for the cameras. Okay. So, yeah, we have a group of technicians that keep an eye on that. And if somebody else notices and send a. They can send us a work order, an email to  

let us know that, hey, we noticed this camera was down just in case, for some reason we missed it because they mostly do checks monthly. 

[00:09:05] Darryn Chenault: Okay. 

[00:09:06] Kelly Cantwell: And yeah, so you talked about the software updates. What about just, you know, technology ages out after a while. So is there also. 

[00:09:15] Darryn Chenault: Are you talking about me? 

[00:09:15] Kelly Cantwell: Yes. 

[00:09:16] Darryn Chenault: You said age and I got offensive. 

[00:09:18] Kelly Cantwell: Yeah, I, I was saying that Darren ages out. 

[00:09:21] Darryn Chenault: Okay. I was just checking. 

[00:09:24] Kelly Cantwell: The cameras. You know, technology ages out. So is there like a schedule at which you have to replace cameras or does it just kind of depend on the camera? 

[00:09:32] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: So it kind of depends on the camera how well it's working. We do try to do. We're trying now to get more of a. Like a five to seven year rotation on replacing the  

cameras just for that reason. Technology changes all the time, so they add. They're adding newer things. AI is a big thing right now. So a lot of the cameras, the newer cameras have that AI  

capability.  So we're trying to get more on a rotation of changing five to seven years or so. 

[00:10:03] Kelly Cantwell: All right, so what does an AI capability in a camera mean? 

[00:10:06] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Noah? Do you know that one? 

[00:10:09] Darryn Chenault: That means you don't have a job. 

[00:10:11] Kelly Cantwell: I have a job. I'm not monitoring cameras. 

[00:10:15] Noah Rezene: It's just advanced analytics on a camera. So there are certain features that you could turn on a camera, and we have these on our campus as well. So there's  

cameras that have vehicle counters. So you can count, like you'll draw an imaginary line, let's say, and if a car crosses that imaginary line, it'll start counting and keep an active tracker. 

There's also vehicle trackers. So if a car is driving on a road, like on our perimeter where we have a lot of traffic, it'll show kind of like the flow of that car and kind of follow that car. 

[00:10:48] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: It could give us details like, you know, how many times that car has been around our campus. Say we find, you know, there's a crime or something that happens and. Or that's maybe they're planning a crime.  

Then you can count, you know, get alerts if you notice that a particular car has been. Has driven around and been caught on different cameras multiple times, you know, just to kind of see if  

maybe they're planning something or. I mean, they could live in the neighborhood. 

[00:11:17] Darryn Chenault: Right. 

[00:11:17] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: But. Yep. Yeah. 

[00:11:18] Darryn Chenault: Tell me this. I'm sorry, I want to kind of go back. You were talking about putting cameras on off campus areas. How does that work? How do you guys coordinate that  

with the city of Cincinnati? Is that something that you guys get together? Is that 

[00:11:31] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: No, we don't do off campus areas. We just do camp. We have them on campus, but looking as camp. Cars or people come onto campus, so they're still on  

campus. They just. But we do have. We are about to do a partnership with the city where we can, you know, share kind of cameras. 

[00:11:51] Darryn Chenualt: I know that's a big thing. That's why I asked that. So just to clarify that the cameras are on UC property, but they're kind of looking off campus there. 

[00:11:58] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Right. To see who's coming onto campus. 

[00:12:01] Darryn Chenault: Good deal. 

[00:12:02] Kelly Cantwell: So I think we've touched on this a little bit. But how do these cameras support, like, public safety and police operations? 

[00:12:10] Noah Rezene: Yeah, so it does this in a few different ways. So on the investigative side, it helps our investigators if an incident has occurred to look into that incident to pull footage. 

Also, it helps act as just a deterrent in general. If you have a camera placed, there's less likelihood of a crime to occur. So it helps out in that way. And then also in the events of  

emergencies or large events, we're able to pull up cameras live to do live monitoring also. 

[00:12:46] Darryn Chenault: That's great. Wow. I mean, you guys kind of touched on a lot today. I'm kind of impressed. 

[00:12:52] Kelly Cantwell: I'm always impressed. 

[00:12:54] Darryn Chenault: I mean, the teamwork over there seems like it definitely makes the dream work. 

[00:12:58] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Try to make it work. 

[00:13:00] Darryn Chenault: You guys are doing a great job. Definitely doing a great job. Kelly, I'm kind of all out of questions because these are some professionals over here. 

[00:13:08] Kelly Cantwell: I mean, I've got a couple more. 

[00:13:12] Darryn Chenault: 2026 people. And she has more questions. 

[00:13:15] Kelly Cantwell: Well, you know, we talked about camera supporting public safety operations, but like a college or a unit can reach out to you all and request a camera on their building.  

And that's not necessarily, you know, for a police purpose. I mean, maybe it is for their security, but I feel like the cameras are for more than just policing. So how do you work with, like,  

colleges and units and what are their needs for cameras look like? 

[00:13:39] Noah Rezene: Yeah, it can really vary depending on the college or unit. So you'll have some colleges reaching out, especially ones that do a large amount of research that might need to  

monitor a lab. So they'll need it for a very specific use case. You'll have others that are just using for general security. So they just want to monitor maybe a high traffic hallway, who's  

coming in and out. So something that we focus on heavily also. So it really just depends. But they'll reach out to us through a work order system, and then we'll meet with that customer.  

We'll meet with them, project services, a few of our vendors, and then we'll conduct a site walkthrough to see exactly what their needs are. Because sometimes they might not exactly  

know. They just know that they need cameras, but they might not know the best location or what might be most advantageous for them. So that's where we kind of step in and

we'll provide recommendations for them. 

[00:14:33] Kelly Cantwell: So are you the person who gets to go out and walk in a building and look at the ceiling and be like, hey, that looks good.

[00:14:39] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: That's him. 

[00:14:40] Noah Rezene: Yep, that is me. And I find myself doing it in my everyday life now too. So if you ever see me in a Kroger, just looking up, that's what I'm doing. 

[00:14:47] Kelly Cantwell: Do you track your steps, because I think you should.  

[00:14:51] Noah Rezene: I don't, but I. I really should start tracking them. 

[00:14:54] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: And also to add, we have just recently this past year, added a security camera policy to the university where it gives kind of the guidelines of when people

have. When they're allowed to put in their own cameras in those cases, like the labs sometimes, or when they have to come through public safety. So anything dealing with safety, or

someone wants it for surveillance type purposes, it has to be on the public safety system. So this is a pretty new policy for the university.  But it is out there and we're trying to get more people

aware of it so we can make sure that we have some insight on all those safety issues and, you know, any kind of safety surveillance.

[00:15:41] Kelly Cantwell: And what are the advantages to that policy and streamlining it all through public safety? 

[00:15:46] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Again, so our investigators can have that access, can be able to see if something happens. They have that footage right there with them, and we don't have to try  

to find a way for them to download the video if it's on a different system or things like that, and then just kind of have kind of a oneness on campus to have everything kind of one system and 

we aware of, you know, what's where and who has what? 

[00:16:11] Darryn Chenault: They're working very hard. 

[00:16:15] Kelly Cantwell: They sure are. 

[00:16:16] Darryn Chenault: I'm impressed. I keep saying it. I am impressed. Cameras are huge. Thank you, yeah. 

[00:16:23] Kelly Cantwell: Is there anything that you all think that, you know, any common questions you get or anything else you think that people might be interested to know about the cameras on  

campus? 

[00:16:34] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: We have a lot more than people probably realize. 

[00:16:40] Darryn Chenault: Definitely. 

[00:16:41] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: And we're continuing to grow every day. So just know that we do have a lot of cameras for our, for the community safety. It's not to watch people and, you know,  

be in people's business, Big Brother or anything like that. It's just for those safety reasons to make sure we are secure. And I'm sure it's a great level of, I don't know the word I want to say,  

assurance for parents to know that we have different, you know, we have cameras in elevators. Most people know that, especially in, in the dorms. So we, we can watch and, you know, 

have a way of just making sure we're all safe, students are safe. 

[00:17:21] Darryn Chenault: It's definitely a deterrent too, when it comes to crime. You know, a lot of people don't realize having cameras up, people are looking. I know the common thief is just looking  

around, like you said, kind of looking at the area. He sees that camera, he's going the other direction. So it's huge its definitely huge.  

[00:17:37] Noah Rezene: Most time yeah, like if a thief sees a camera, they're going to just go to an area with no camera right now and say that's an easier target. But that's where we step in and we 

cover that. 

[00:17:47] Darryn Chenault: Now I'm, I have a question. Is it okay if I ask a question, Kelly? Because I know, I know you had a lot of questions. 

[00:17:54] Kelly Cantwell: You can ask questions. 

[00:17:55] Darryn Chenault : I'm kind of one of those old school, I watch a lot of TV and, you know, the thief comes in, he steals something, looks at the camera. Can you guys pull like a facial recognition  

off of that camera? See, I'm that guy. I had to ask that question because I know a lot of kids still think that thing exists. So I'm just curious. 

[00:18:12] Noah Rezene: You can't necessarily have like a facial recognition where it pulls up somebody out of a magical database. But, but if it's a known person, they can search

against that. So like, if somebody has been in the system before or something like that, they can cross reference that picture. Another handy thing, we were talking about analytics

and cameras. Let's say I go ahead and commit a crime wearing this exact outfit, you know, blue shirt, gray vest. If using those analytics, you can actually search with those specific terms  

and find a person wearing that exact, you know, that exact clothing on different camera streams. So it also cuts down on investigative time, having to pour through hours of footage. 

Just using those analytics, you can do quick searches like that. 

[00:19:00] Kelly Cantwell: That's amazing. 

[00:19:02] Darryn Chenault: That is amazing. I'm glad I asked that question. I watched too much CSI. Does that show even come on anymore?  I watch a lot of those shows, and I'm like,  

does that really exist? So thank you for answering that question. 

[00:19:14] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: It does exist, but we don't necessarily have, you know, all those, especially the facial recognition. They do pride themselves, our security folks,   

and not invading people's privacy.  So we don't want to have a lot of things, you know, where you have that facial recognition and, you know, kind of being a little invasive. 

[00:19:33] Darryn Chenault: Wow. 

[00:19:34] Kelly Cantwell: Yeah. I imagine it's a balance between improving safety while also allowing people their privacy in public spaces. 

[00:19:41] Noah Rezene: Absolutely. 

[00:19:42] Darryn Chenault: Wow. 

[00:19:43] Kelly Cantwell: Some privacy in public spaces. Public spaces, I guess it's a limited amount of privacy. 

[00:19:49] Darryn Chenault: That's great. Well, I know it's about that time, and I definitely get to say it. You know what I'm about to say. 

[00:19:56] Kelly Cantwell: I do. 

[00:19:57] Darryn Chenault: Thank you. Thank you for coming out. 

[00:20:00] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: He's about to say something prolific. 

[00:20:03] Darryn Chenault: Thank you. That is simple. 

[00:20:06] Kawanda Dedrick-Thomas: Well, that's true. 

[00:20:08] Darryn Chenault: A lot of people don't even say thank you. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for being on Bridging the Gap, you know, definitely glad to see you guys are working hard  

for the campus and the. The faculty as well, you know. So thank you for all that good stuff. 

[00:20:21] Kelly Cantwell: Thank you to everyone listening. 

[00:20:23] Darryn Chenault: Yeah. 

[00:20:24] Kelly Cantwell: Because it's episode five now  

[00:20:25] Darryn Chenault: In 2026. 

[00:20:28] Kelly Cantwell: First episode. 2026, episode five of the podcast. 

[00:20:31] Darryn Chenault: And we definitely got to thank 1819 Innovation Hub for having us. So. 

[00:20:37] Kelly Cantwell: Absolutely. 

[00:20:38] Darryn Chenault: Thank you.

[00:20:38] Kelly Cantwell: All right, we will see you all next time. 

[00:20:42] Darryn Chenault:  We out.

---

[00:00:00] Darryn Chenault: Here we go. Back for another edition of Bridging the Gap. I'm here with my co host, 

[00:00:06] Kelly Cantwell: Kelly Cantwell 

[00:00:07] Darryn Chenault: and we're. Oh, we messed up. Here we go. Starting all over again.

[00:00:12] Kelly Cantwell: And today we have a. What word did you pick?

[00:00:16] Darryn Chenault: Beautiful day.

[00:00:17] Kelly Cantwell: Beautiful guest?

[00:00:18] Rob Gutierrez: Rainy day.

[00:00:19] Darryn Chenault: Oh, we have a wonderful guest today. A wonderful guest. We're here today with Lt. Gutierrez. How are you doing, Lieutenant?

[00:00:28] Rob Gutierrez: I'm doing fine. How are you doing?

[00:00:29] Darryn Chenault: I'm doing well. We're doing well. We wanted to talk a little bit about training.

[00:00:34] Kelly Cantwell: We wanted to let Lieutenant Gutierrez introduce himself.

[00:00:37] Darryn Chenault: See, here we go again. Here we go. Kelly knows that I like to just dive right into things. So, Lieutenant, tell us a little bit about yourself.

[00:00:46] Rob Gutierrez: So I'm Lieutenant Rob Gutierrez. I've been here at the university for almost 25 years.

Started off as a student worker, one of the best hires I've ever had here. I also did some training and hiring. One of the best hires was your own. Truly, Darren Chenault. 

[00:01:02] Darryn Chenault: Whoop. Whoop. 

[00:01:03] Rob Gutierrez: Yep. But. But no. So I've been in many different things. I've been over patrol, I've been over training, special events, internal invest...internal affairs, and currently I'm back in training and special events.

[00:01:17] Darryn Chenault: Wow. Sounds like you do a lot for the university.

[00:01:20] Rob Gutierrez: I've done a lot. It's treated me well.

[00:01:22] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome. Hey, just to talk a little bit about training, we were kind of curious what kind of training goes into training our officers. Like, do they get this whole continuing training every year? And what is it that we do?

[00:01:39] Rob Gutierrez: So that's a big question. So all of our officers, we do an abundance of training.

So the first thing that we have to do is required by the state of Ohio. So that includes all of our continued professional training. And each year, it varies from year to year, and it's typically around 24 hours. And that includes mandated training that deals with ethics, deals with use of force. It deals with any type of legal updates. It deals with Fourth Amendment training, with search and seizure. And then, so that's about eight hours, and then we go into 16 elective hours. So the state will give us 16 elective hours of what we can do.

And we can choose anything from, you know, driving, mental health bias, free policing training.

This year, one of the things that we did was alert training, which is we did two days, two full days of active threat training in order to make sure our officers are prepared to keep everybody safe.

[00:02:42] Darryn Chenault: That's big. That's big. So when you guys do this training, as far as the active shooter training, what goes into that is that, you know, are all the officers doing it at one time? Do you have people come in to help, like.

[00:02:58] Rob Gutierrez: So what we typically do is so all of our officers go through active threat training. So and, and we call it active threat, not active shooter training, because you never know, you never know what that threat could be. It could be various things. It could be, you know, a knife attack, it could be a firearm, it could be, it could be various things.

But all of our officers go through.

It's a two day course that they do. Sometimes we do one day.

It just depends upon timing.

However, this year we did two days. The first day it included, I believe it was five instructors.

And we try to limit the class to around eight to 10 people, eight to 10 officers at a time, because that gives the instructors the ability to really work with those officers one on one to make sure they're doing things effectively to be safe.

Moving through the hallways, different things, moving through efficiently to make sure everybody can stay safe. But they, like I said, two days. First day is gonna be the movement and training and whatnot. And then that second day we put everything together. That's when we're gonna have usually instructors. The same officers that attended the first day will go to the second day. And it's all scenario based training. So we put them, it's called sim round, simunition rounds. And so if an officer is getting shot at, they're getting shot at with a small paint round that, you know, it can leave a mark, it can hurt a little bit, and the officer certainly will learn their lesson. However, their goal is to go in and neutralize that threat, whatever that has been determined to be. So they're running to the threat, searching buildings, various different things. And while they're shooting, being shot on, or there could be any type of bomb, any type of explosive device, they're trying to neutralize that threat and, you know, make sure, make sure they know what they're doing. Because if something were to occur like that, we want to make sure that we can get there quickly and take care of what we need to do.

[00:04:55] Kelly Cantwell: And I think active threat is very concerning, especially at a university.

And so.

But when we think, you know, when you see an active threat or an active shooter in the news, it's kind of like you envision the suspect coming in and shooting a bunch of people with a rifle. But that's not the only type of scenario that you all train for that would be considered an active threat.

[00:05:18] Rob Gutierrez: Correct. Yeah, we train for anything. From a knife to explosive device, firearms, secondary devices. You know, a lot of times, if with active threats, if there is a firearm involved, a lot of times there are other types of, you know, whether a weapon or a device involved that we want to make sure that we train for.

So. But, you know, one of the awesome things about this training is that we're able to utilize our students as well.

So a lot of times we need, we need role players. You know, we want people running down the hallway. We want that chaos. We want our officers to encounter that chaos so they can actually, you know, run through it, make sure that they're identifying people correctly, make sure that they're, you know, if a student is saying they're a student, they're. They're doing that safely. We want that chaos there for our officers. So when they do encounter that or if they were to encounter that, it's not going to be the first time that they have something like that.

[00:06:12] Darryn Chenault: That's great. That's great. I've been in law enforcement for a while, and I hear this whole ICAT training.

Can you tell me what ICAT stands for and how do you guys go about doing that training?

[00:06:24] Rob Gutierrez: I can. So ICAT stands for Integrating Communication and Tactics.

And that was developed by PERF, which is a Police Executive Research Forum. PERF is one of the leading kind of think tanks for policing. And they put out a lot, put out a lot of, like, best practice of what we do. So ICAT right now is, is seen as kind of like a best practice. And what we do is when we train that, every single officer at our agency is trained in that, and we kind of say it's kind of spinning the wheel, okay? So, you know, we want our officers to go into a situation and have the most information that they can, whether they're responding to somebody who is, you know, completely coherent, whether they're responding to somebody that may be going through a mental health crisis, you know, the area, different things. We want them, while they're going there to gather all the information that they're able to. Okay, no matter what kind of scenario that it is, you know, and once they get there, we want them to, you know, know their. What are their legal rights, what are the policies, what do they need to do? Like, what is the knowledge base that our officers need to have in order to, you know, if, you know, act, one, within their legal scope, within the policy of the university, in order to remedy whatever it may be?

So when we look at that, that's the communication portion of it. And then there's also the tactics. So we're gathering, like I said, we're gathering all different types of information.

So when we gather that, when they're going into a situation, what are they doing? How are they going to act tactically in order to do that? Now, obviously we go into a situation and the reason I say it's kind of like a wheel where you can look at everything.

If you're going into a situation where you just maybe need to de-escalate somebody, that's one thing. However, if somebody has a firearm and they're actively doing something, you're going to spin that wheel and start at a different place.

So that's what we mean by that. However, the most important thing when it comes to the ICAT training is we teach our officers that the sanctity of life is the most important. So at the center of that wheel, that's the thing that we always take into consideration is the sanctity of life. Now it's not just for us, but it's also for the person who may be acting out. It's for the people that could be victims there during a scenario.

It's everybody. So not only is it us, but it's also a suspect or a victim. We want everybody to be safe.

Now this training, we do that, but we also do that in combination with other training. It kind of all fits together.

We also do something and it's kind of the hot topic in policing. And I can say being here for 25 years, this is something that's always been important to us. However, it's de-escalation and non-escalation training.

The ICAT, at least in what I've seen, we train both of those at the same day. We're actually coming up tomorrow, we're going to be training some people.

However, the ICAT training kind of tells people what to do to, whereas the de-escalation and non-escalation training kind of tells them how to do it. And so we use those together because we think that they really complement each other very well.

But the de-escalation training, the non-escalation training, we've been doing that for a long time because a lot of times, you know, it's difficult for some people just to go out and speak, right? And so we want to give our officers all the tools to, to be able to take a situation that may be chaotic to whereas if we're able to de-escalate that, you know, and keep somebody safe and talk somebody off a ledge, you know, have somebody drop the weapon. Depending upon how we respond, a lot of times it's going to be how they respond, and we want them to respond in a manner that's going to keep themselves safe.

[00:10:19] Darryn Chenault: That's a lot right there.

[00:10:21] Rob Gutierrez: It's deep.

[00:10:21] Darryn Chenault: It is deep.

[00:10:22] Rob Gutierrez: It's a lot.

[00:10:23] Darryn Chenault: Because I'm kind of curious. Half the time, you know, growing up and my encounters with law enforcement have been different. And when I say different, in a way, do all officers treat everybody the same, or is it just when you get to certain areas or certain groupings, do they treat them different?

[00:10:41] Rob Gutierrez: You know, in a perfect world, I would like to say that all officers treat everybody the same way. However, we're going to be honest about that, and that's not the case. Officers are people.

Officers make mistakes. You know, I would like to think that oftentimes officers are not trying to make those mistakes intentionally.

However, we know that's the case. Okay. I'm not blind to that. I don't think anybody's blind to that.

We're going to be real about it. You know, there's some officers out there that probably shouldn't be officers.

[00:11:11] Darryn Chenault: I think that's a great answer because honestly, until I got in law enforcement, I didn't know. And, you know, once, now that I'm in law enforcement, I can see that we are treating people equally.

[00:11:22] Rob Gutierrez: But you know what? I will, what I will say with that is, you know, with all that being said, I would say, at least in my encounters, the one that I've had, most officers, they're in this for the right reason. You know, you get that. You get that, you know, proverbial bad apple.

However, you know, most officers that I have encountered are doing it for the right reasons. They truly want to help people. I mean, it sounds kind of cliche. It's like I remember, you know, why do you want to get in law enforcement? That was a question I was asked. I'm sure you were as well.

And it's why I want to help people. And it sounds so cliche. However, it's true. I mean, it really is fitting. So while there are officers that shouldn't be officers, I would say the greatest majority of them are doing this for the right reasons, are going to be treating people, you know, without bias. You know, they're going to be treating them the same. They're going to be treating them in a manner that, you know, quite honestly, they want their family to be treated.

So.

[00:12:19] Kelly Cantwell: But I think we also have those unconscious biases that we have to address too. And I believe that There are ways that we train that try to...

[00:12:29] Rob Gutierrez: We do. 

[00:12:29] Kelly Cantwell: work on that. 

[00:12:30] Rob Gutierrez: We do. We work on that quite a bit. So, you know, people, people have biases no matter what. I have biases. You have biases. You do. Everybody does. If somebody is saying they don't have biases, don't believe them. I mean, everybody. Everybody has them.

[00:12:45] Darryn Chenault: That's right.

[00:12:45] Rob Gutierrez: So whether they're implicit biases or explicit biases, everybody has them. Explicit biases are going to be those bad biases. You know, they're the ones that, you know, Darryn, the one you're talking about growing up and everything. Those are going to be those explicit biases that you probably encountered. However, implicit biases.

You know, it's the unconscious in us. It's. It's when we're not thinking. Okay, so, you know, one of the examples that we use is, you know, you know, Kelly, let's say I'll use you, for example. Okay, so say you're walking down the road.

You're all by yourself.

You're at. It's nighttime, and you're walking down the road, and you see somebody walking down in your direction, opposite of you, walking down, right towards you. And they. They may not look like the nicest individual. They may look a little rough. They may look, you know,

[00:13:38] Darryn Chenault: Like me? He's just saying I look rough.

[00:13:39] Rob Gutierrez: Exactly.

[00:13:39] Darryn Chenault: Okay, I'll take that.

[00:13:40] Rob Gutierrez: No, no, no, no. I mean, there's all types of things that they could look at. Maybe they look like a biker that you don't feel comfortable with. Maybe it looks like a young kid that you're like, I think that person's gonna rob me, or something like that. Maybe it's a homeless person. It could be various people. However, they make you feel uncomfortable.

You see this and you don't really think about it. You just move to the other side of the road to walk down that road. Or maybe there's a elderly woman walking down the road and you're like, I feel good with that woman.

However, I don't feel good over here.

So that's kind of that implicit bias that we're looking at where it's like, you know, sometimes they keep us safe. However, the most important thing when it comes to implicit bias is, you know, are you aware of those biases? And we try to instill that in our officers. We do training, so we do some training from. It was developed by down at USF South Florida, Dr. Lorie Fridell. So it's fair and impartial policing.

So myself, along with a few other officers, we've been through some training to be instructors in that. And we started doing that back in, just after 2015, and we wanted to make sure that all of our officers were aware of their biases. You know, we don't want them to be influenced by their biases in a negative manner.

So all of our officers go through, whether they're, at the time, every single one went through, it was an eight hour or four hour course, I believe. And then now all of our officers, everybody that's hired on, we go through that and we do annual retraining to make sure that these ideas are fresh in their head. Whereas their biases are not going to be impacting their work or impacting any type of involvement that they have with the community in a negative manner.

[00:15:27] Darryn Chenault: So that was actually my next question. So this training that UCPD gets is every year?

[00:15:35] Rob Gutierrez: So we do, I would, I would say that we do some of the most training in the, in the state of Ohio.

We, we do an extensive amount of training. You know, anything from mental health training. All of our officers, there's a, there's a training called crisis intervention training, you know, and that has to deal with people that have a mental health crisis. You know, how do we, how do we work with those people? Making sure our officers are knowledgeable about different, like, you know, maybe somebody who's bipolar or depression or various different things, individuals that are suicidal.

We want our officers to go there and have this training to make sure that they are prepared to be able to, you know, ultimately help people.

[00:16:24] Kelly Cantwell: I think that's an important topic too, again, especially at college, to have those, you know, we do see students who are having some sort of mental health crisis and we are often the people who are responding initially to that. So how do you feel like that training has shaped our officers ability to respond to that?

[00:16:44] Rob Gutierrez: Oh, I think it's been fantastic, you know, all of our training. So I would say that. And I'll get into that in just a moment. However, one of the things that I've really, really enjoyed about university policing and I've been here forever, I feel like, however, one of the things that I've really enjoyed about it. You going to say something?

[00:17:01] Darryn Chenault: Forever. I just wanted everybody to know. Forever he's been here.

[00:17:05] Rob Gutierrez: I feel like it, but it's also done, it's done great things for me. This place has treated me very, very well. 

Darryn Cheanult: I agree. 

Rob Gutierrez: So. But where was I at?

[00:17:15] Darryn Chenault: I did catch him off guard with that forever.

[00:17:17] Rob Gutierrez: Forever. So.

Oh, one of the things that I've really enjoyed about working here at the university is that we have always been, and you know, some people don't really think about this in maybe other jurisdictions or municipalities, however, we are very much customer service oriented. Okay. So we have always, always been like that ever since I can remember. And you know, when we look at the, you know, we talked about the de-escalation and non-escalation training. You know, we talk about the, the, the ICAT training that we do. We talk about like the, like any training that we do.

A lot of it focuses on, you know, not necessarily 100% customer service, but it's like, how do you treat people well, you know, how do you keep them. And they keep their dignity even if they're going through the worst time in their life? How do we do that?

And so we try to instill in our officers, you know, how do you treat people? You know, because that matters. That matters. And it goes a long ways when you're dealing with an individual that may be going through a crisis, that may be having just a bad day. There's good, good people that just have bad days.

And we understand that. That's one of the things that we really understand here at the university, especially with our department.

Now, when it comes to her question, you're talking about mental health, how does that prepare us? It's training, you know, all that stuff, it prepares us. I mean, it's one of those things where we, we train for it, we do scenario-based training for it.

We instill all those values, all those like, ethics that we want them to have. And when they go out there and when they're dealing with somebody with a mental health crisis, I mean, oftentimes, I mean, we have, we have officers that have literally talked somebody off of a ledge.

Literally, like, literally off of a ledge. And that's one of those things where it's like, okay, all this training, now does that have to do with the officer too? And you know, sometimes people just have an ability, they have the gift of gab, they can do that.

However, we want all of our officers to be to the point where they can do that and it gives them that confidence to be able to go out there and, you know, speak with an individual that's going through a crisis.

[00:19:32] Darryn Chenault: Oh, 100%. I know that's key. And that's, that's, you know, you're absolutely right. I've been at a lot of agencies and I feel like the University of Cincinnati Police Department does an outstanding job of breaking down the training that we get to meet the needs of the community so I totally agree with you.

[00:19:50] Kelly Cantwell: Well, do you have any final thoughts or any final pieces of training that you really want to highlight?

[00:19:57] Rob Gutierrez: So when I look at training, we really do have the best interest of the university, whether it's faculty, staff, students, we really do have their best interest in mind.

There's all these hot topics. So some of the things that we've talked about.

The last thing I'll kind of go into is you got your hard tactics and you got your soft tactics. Okay, the hard tactics, you know, the alert training, the active threat training, different things like that. We always practice that. We've always practiced that. And we do that. We do that extremely well. I would say that some of our trainers are some of the best trainers that I've encountered and I'm extremely confident in them and training our officers. Then we have the soft skills, and that's the de-escalation and non-escalation training and all those things. So when we're looking at training, we're not just looking at it at a, hey, we like, there's always a threat or there's always this or always that. Okay. Sometimes it needs that softer touch. It needs that de-escalation. It needs that non-escalation.

We want our officers to be able to go in there. And, you know, I do talk about non-escalation. Like, well, what's that? That's an officer going in there and acting in a manner that they're not going to escalate that situation. Because sometimes just by wearing a badge, we can escalate that situation.

And if we can make, you know, if we encounter somebody and we, we can encounter one person at a time, we can make that difference. That's my goal.

That's. That is ultimately with my goal, with the training that we put out as a, as an agency to our officers, to have them make one. Make a difference with one person at a time. And it just kind of just goes from there.

[00:21:45] Darryn Chenault: That's wonderful.

[00:21:46] Kelly Cantwell: That's awesome.

[00:21:47] Darryn Chenault: Lieutenant Gutierrez

Rob Gutierrez: Darryn Chenault. 

Darryn Chenault: Thank you for being here.

[00:21:51] Rob Gutierrez: Thank you for having me.

[00:21:52] Darryn Chenault: I thought you did a excellent job at the overview of what University of Cincinnati Police Department is doing in training. So we glad that you came.

To be honest with you, I was sitting here, I wanted to tell people this guy is super famous right here because every time I watch a football game, he's running off with the head coach.

[00:22:11] Rob Gutierrez: Yeah, I do. I do. And you know why I do that?

[00:22:14] Darryn Chenault: Why is that?

[00:22:14] Rob Gutierrez: Why I do that.

So I've been very fortunate. So for the last seven years, I've been fortunate to be able to travel with the UC football team. And it's one of the, my honestly, one of my favorite things, the most blessed things I get, I get to be able to do.

And you know, you talk about fair and impartial policing, you talk about bias free policing, okay. And it's like, do officers sometimes have a bias? They do. However, sometimes people do as well. Okay. And when I go out there, okay, I'm encountering not just the coaching staff, I'm encountering the entire team, okay. And you know, sometimes I talk to more than others and whatnot. However, I want to be that positive influence with those players.

And when you talk about bias free, you know, I want them to be able to see an officer out there that they can trust. And like I said, one person at a time, you know, maybe I'm that one person that I can influence one of those players. And so, I mean, I absolutely love doing that. I mean, honestly, I get to see a lot of places and I've been been to a lot of places. And so, you know, partially that's, that's my own, like, benefit and I love doing it.

However, the positives far outweigh, like anything that I could ever ask for.

[00:23:30] Darryn Chenault: Well, before we go, I just want to get an autograph because I know you're a famous guy out there. So if you can.

[00:23:36] Rob Gutierrez: Do you want me, you want me to make it out to you?

[00:23:38] Darryn Chenault: Yeah. Because I'mma frame that and put that in my office.

[00:23:40] Rob Gutierrez: I got you. I got you.

[00:23:41] Darryn Chenault: And I'm going to make sure that Kelly. Make sure Kelly gets one too.

[00:23:44] Rob Gutierrez: To Kelly.

[00:23:45] Darryn Chenault: Yeah, to Kelly.

[00:23:45] Rob Gutierrez: Is that with an ey or just a y?

[00:23:47] Kelly Cantwell: You know. 

Rob Gutierrez: I know.

[00:23:49] Darryn Chenault: See, that's how we wrap it up here on Bridging the Gap. I want to thank 1819 Innovation Hub for hosting us.

[00:23:57] Kelly Cantwell: Yes. And thank you for listening to our fourth episode.

[00:24:00] Darryn Chenault: Oh, we moving along. Fourth episode.

[00:24:04] Kelly Cantwell: And to all of our students, faculty and staff, have a great holiday season.

[00:24:08] Darryn Chenault: Happy holidays.

[00:24:09] Rob Gutierrez: Happy holidays.

---

[00:00:00] Darryn Chenault: We're back with another episode of Bridging the Gap. I'm your guy, Officer Darryn Chenault, here

[00:00:07] Kelly Cantwell: With Public Information Officer Kelly Cantwell.

[00:00:10] Darryn Chenault: Yes, I am here with two rock stars from UCPD, Lt. McMahon and Ms. Rachel Kleindorfer. Did I say that right?

Kelly Cantwell: No, not at all. Darryn Chenault: You smiling.

[00:00:23] Rachel Kleindorfer: It's Kleindorfer.

[00:00:24] Darryn Chenault: Yes, there it is.

[00:00:25] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yes.

[00:00:26] Darryn Chenault: So we're gonna get right into it. We were talking the other day, and we were talking about, like, current trends around the University of Cincinnati.

[00:00:34] Kelly Cantwell: Hey, Darryn.

[00:00:35] Darryn Chenault: Yes?

[00:00:36] Kelly Cantwell: Maybe we should let them introduce themselves.

[00:00:38] Darryn Chenault: Oh, there it is. See, I like to get into things.

[00:00:42] Jennifer McMahon: Darryn's on a roll.

[00:00:43] Darryn Chenault: I am on a roll. Lieutenant McMahon.

[00:00:47] Jennifer McMahon: Hi, everybody. I'm Lieutenant McMahon, and as you guys know, I run the investigations unit here at the university.

[00:00:55] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yeah, my name is Rachel Kleindorfer, and I am the crime analyst and technical lead at the University of Cincinnati. So I study a lot of data trends that happen on and around campus and help us work, you know, smarter and not harder.

[00:01:08] Darryn Chenault: You make things go for us, huh?

[00:01:09] Rachel Kleindorfer: I try.

Jennifer McMahon: Makes my job easier.

[00:01:12] Darryn Chenault: That's all good. Well, we're going to jump right into it. We were kind of talking the other day, and we were talking about burglary trends throughout the University of Cincinnati. Can you talk a little bit about that?

[00:01:23] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yeah, absolutely. So the area that I'm gonna be discussing today is from an area called the CSR, which stands for Concentration of Student Residents. So that's essentially where our students are living on and around campus, because it's important to understand the crime that our students are going to be facing coming on and off of campus. So primarily, most of the burglaries that do occur are off campus.

Specifically, an area that we struggled with over the summer months were on the south side of campus.

It only takes one or two individuals to really drive up our numbers, unfortunately. So our year to date numbers are higher at this point. I want to say they are, they are increasing. For our year to date numbers, however, for the 28 day, the past 28 days, and the past seven days, we are decreasing, which is great. We just had a really rough summer, and hopefully we can continue that decreasing trend. But we're going to get into some things about how to prevent burglaries that should hopefully help these numbers moving forward.

[00:02:25] Jennifer McMahon: Well, and one of the incidences that I think drove the numbers was we had the burglary on campus, and that was quite a few people that were arrested on that one. So that made our numbers higher. But it was one incident. But a bunch of people

Rachel Kleindorfer: Right, Absolutely.

[00:02:40] Darryn Chenault: Does this have anything to do with juveniles? I mean, how much of this is juveniles versus adults? Just curious.

[00:02:46] Rachel Kleindorfer: So it depends on the instance. Most of the ones that I'm seeing off campus and on the south side are not juveniles. But I do know there was the instance that Lt. McMahon was discussing was involving juveniles, I believe.

[00:03:00] Jennifer McMahon: Yes. That that was mostly all juveniles.

Rachel Kleindorfer: Yeah. Mostly all juveniles.

[00:03:03] Jennifer McMahon: Yes. Yeah.

[00:03:04] Kelly Cantwell: And can you talk a little bit about on campus burglary and off campus burglary? Because we look at both in what you do.

[00:03:11] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yeah, absolutely. So on campus definitely looks different. So we were, you know, kind of discussing a little bit before this. There are some instances where there are burglaries that happen on, like within some of our our buildings.

So there are some that happen in the dorms, for example, people. People going into each other's rooms when they're not invited and taking things.

But the instances off campus are usually the offenders are not UC affiliated. So in the case with the dorm situation, that can sometimes be roommate, you know, roommate trouble.

But sometimes the ones off campus are not involving UC affiliated people. The offenders aren't anyway, so they're entering through, like, unlocked doors, windows, things of that nature. Do you want to talk more about the on campus ones?

[00:04:02] Jennifer McMahon: Yes. And I also think that's important to note is while the numbers. Rachel looks at the numbers in the whole CSR area, how they're reported to police are different. So if it's. And that's where jurisdiction gets confusing and complicated for people that don't understand it. If you live on campus or you are a victim of a burglary or a crime on campus, then it would be reported to UCPD. But if you live off campus, it's reported to CPD, and we still get those reports and those numbers. But I think it's important to note when she talks about crime stats and stuff, it's, you're encompassing a big area. Not just necessarily for all intents and purposes, UC community, so to speak.

[00:04:51] Kelly Cantwell: And I imagine with what Rachel does, it's very important that we look at Cincinnati police reports too.

[00:04:57] Rachel Kleindorfer: Absolutely.

[00:04:58] Kelly Cantwell: Because my understanding is a lot of our students live in these areas off campus. So it's very valuable for our purposes to be looking.

[00:05:05] Jennifer McMahon: Oh, yeah, the majority. I mean, I won't speak to actual numbers, but 3/4 of the students live off campus. We're dealing with a small number actually on campus.

[00:05:15] Darryn Chenault: Speaking of students, Lieutenant McMahon, what can our students do to prevent, you know, such actions as far as break ins, you know, just kind of prevent things from happening?

[00:05:25] Jennifer McMahon: Right.

[00:05:26] Jennifer McMahon: Well, I think it's first and foremost the biggest things, and I know it sounds redundant, silly. I'm sure everybody's told the same thing, but I think it's easily overlooked when you're excited to get back home, get out of town, get on vacation. But locking doors and windows. I get a lot of the students live in, like, older houses, so they keep the windows open for airflow and things like that. But you've got to remember, even a crack, even someone is looking for that. Like, even a cracked window, they can push in.

Doors and windows, make sure they're locked. Make sure. Rachel and our talking, she brought up blinds. Blinds being closed.

Lights are important.

Students know they live off campus. The lighting is not the best.

And, you know, community engagement, I know that's a battle they fight continuously with the city to try and get better lighting. But if you can get your landlords to put up, like, floodlights, leave a light on in the front window so it looks like someone's home. Even something simple as leaving a TV on so the noise, so people think someone's home, you know. And the biggest thing and I know social media and everybody. And I, you know, I'm showing my age here.

Social media is a big deal. I get it. Everybody wants to post their photos in real time where they're at if you're on vacation or you're back home. But believe it or not, people look for that stuff and they see that and they know people are out of town. So if you can wait to post your vacations or your trips or things like that till you get back, that's a, that's a big deal.

[00:07:04] Kelly Cantwell: And as we go into a lot of breaks for the university, like Thanksgiving and the winter break, are there, like, specific things that you see common mistakes students are making when they're leaving for, you know, more than a weekend?

[00:07:21] Jennifer McMahon: Yeah. I mean, a lot of the things we just talked about, other things are like leaving the trash cans out. Cause the trash came, you know, Thursday and they left Thursday. So trash can sit out till Monday or something. A lot of times it could be laziness or whatever. But it also lets people know that, hey, someone might not be home. Because, let's face it, everybody knows the majority of where the students live. The bad guys know that, too.

This isn't their first rodeo. So they know when spring breaks are, fall breaks, winter breaks, summer breaks. So these are the things when they're looking for houses that are easy targets, they're looking for those things. So I would just, you know, again, lock doors, locked windows, closed blinds, keep lights on if you can.

[00:08:11] Kelly Cantwell: And I think I heard Rachel mention something the other day about someone pushing in an AC unit.

[00:08:16] Jennifer McMahon: Yeah, that's been.

[00:08:17] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yeah, that can also definitely happen.

I know that's a little bit harder to prevent because a lot of our students are renters, and so that's the situation with the landlord.

But if you're able to, I know it's kind of hard, but put the AC unit on the second level, for example, that would be something that would be preferable to a first floor because it's easier for offenders to gain entry.

[00:08:41] Kelly Cantwell: Well, and I think by Thanksgiving you can possibly even be removing these from your windows altogether. And just shutting them.

[00:08:47] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yes, definitely. When it gets colder, just removing them would probably be the best bet. And then of course, locking the window afterwards to prevent any kind of break ins through the windows.

[00:08:59] Kelly Cantwell: And I think we get questions sometimes from students about having like a security system like ring or SimpliSafe or, I don't know, any of the other ones. Do you see much benefit to those? Should students be trying to invest in that?

[00:09:13] Jennifer McMahon: Oh, yeah. I mean, people's ring doorbell cameras have helped us significantly catch,

Rachel Kleindorfer: Absolutely.

Jennifer McMahon: catch perpetrators and yeah, other bad guys. Yeah, I mean, they'll offer up. And we had one that was one person that was hitting off campus pretty hard and the girls didn't even know they were helping. And they called up and they said, hey, we have a ring doorbell camera. We think of this guy, he kind of looked suspicious and it was him. And yeah, we were able to identify him.

[00:09:42] Darryn Chenault: I get a lot of questions. The ring camera, is that pretty much the landlord's, is that his decision to put the ring camera on or can kids put it on themselves?

[00:09:53] Jennifer McMahon: I think it's, hey, if I could do it, probably anybody could do it. I put one up in my house.

It's very simple. But however, I would just mention it to your landlord that you're doing it. I wouldn't just go rogue and start putting up things.

Definitely mention it. I can't see a landlord saying no.

I mean, I would first ask them to install it and if they say no, say, well, are you okay with me doing it? And then go get a $50 doorbell camera.

[00:10:21] Kelly Cantwell: And some of these sensors can be pretty renter friendly, right? Like they just stick on the window as opposed to having to screw things in.

[00:10:27] Jennifer McMahon: Oh, yeah.

[00:10:28] Rachel Kleindorfer: There's a lot of different options. And actually the ring camera is really helpful for analytics as well. Because one of the issues that I face, for example, over the breaks, like Thanksgiving or winter break, is that I won't know what crime has occurred until the student has come back and reported it.

So a lot of the times I'm not aware over long periods of breaks where our students aren't present when a burglary actually happens.

So with the ring, you get your time and day in that moment, because a lot of times, even with burglaries without breaks, most students won't report it until, for example, the next morning or when they get home. And so I don't have a super accurate day or timeline of when they're coming. And that timeline is really important because that helps narrow down what times I'm going to be looking at recommending to our patrol of when we need to be doing our directed patrols and where.

[00:11:19] Darryn Chenault: So what happens? I come home, I'm a student, and I realize my door's kicked in or my window's smashed out. What do I do next?

[00:11:27] Jennifer McMahon: Call us, Call the police, like I said. And this is where that jurisdiction comes into play.

The majority live off campus. So if you're burglarized off campus, we. When you call 911, a Cincinnati Police officer is going to show up. They're going to take that report. Now, UCPD and CPD work very well together for the most part. So a lot of times the CPD officers find out it's a UC student, they call us, we send an officer to take an information report.

So we have all the details as well.

And we also have our victim service coordinator, which steps in and helps on the victim side, can help navigate things like that.

But the city handles the offense.

So then they'll start though it'll go to an investigator and they'll start their process.

[00:12:16] Darryn Chenault: So when I come home and I realize my house has been broken into, should I wait outside? Should I go in to see what's missing? Can you kind of guide me on that?

[00:12:25] Jennifer McMahon: You know, I think all situations are going to be different. If it's nighttime and you're getting back and you're alone and your door is open or your window has been broken, absolutely. Do not go in that house. Call from your car, call from the street. If you know your neighbors are home, a friend's home, go over there, make the phone call, wait for the police to clear your house.

I think it's going to be situational. If it's the daytime and then you've been gone for a week and it looks like the back window has been broken out of, I would tell you, err on the side of caution, do not go in. Call outside, have the, have the officers go in and clear your house. Why would you take that chance? And then when they tell you the house is clear, you're going to come in and they're going to say, okay, what's missing? What's messed up, what, things like that. There's no sense of urgency for you to go in if you do not feel comfortable.

[00:13:24] Kelly Cantwell: And what if I am in my home and an offender comes in? What's, what do I do in that situation?

Darryn Chenault: Besides scream? I have to ask. I’d scream.

[00:13:35] Jennifer McMahon: Yeah, I mean, make as much noise as you can. Run. Lock yourself in a closet, lock yourself in a bathroom, lock yourself in another room, get out if you can. A lot of these older houses have like back doors, front doors, a door on the second floor. Run down. I mean, get out any way you can.

Call us immediately. Make as much noise as possible. We've had that happen. We've had some reports where. But again, these people are, these bad guys are wanting to get in and get out as quick as possible. We've had people knock in window units grab what they can that they can reach and run away. I mean, they're not, you know, and a lot of times people are woken up with people in their house and they've startled the bad guy just as much as they're not expecting someone to be home. It's just luck of the draw type thing. So yeah.

[00:14:23] Rachel Kleindorfer: And I think it's important to also discuss, like, who you're living with in terms of. Because sometimes there have been reports where they think it's their roommate, for example, so maybe just having some discussions with who you're living with, you know, if they're going to be home late or, you know, sort of having some expectations of when, when they're going to be home. So if something is out of the ordinary, they would know, hey, that's actually not my roommate. You know, that's, you know, and also just being aware, you know, don't leave a key under the mat or, you know, for other people to come in your house. You know, just general things like that.

[00:14:53] Jennifer McMahon: Yeah, I mean, and that brings up a good point for. On campus, for the residence halls, we hear that a lot that students will be like, well, I don't want to live like I'm in, you know, a jail cell that's locked. So we'll leave our doors open so our friends can just come in and out, you know, keep it. And I understand that, but you're also opening yourself up for situations like this. So when you are in your homes or your residence hall, keep your doors locked. I mean, unfortunately, it's kind of the day and age we live in now, and it shouldn't be that way, but it is that way.

[00:15:28] Kelly Cantwell: Can you also talk, I've heard people around the office mention before where offenders will meet a student at a bar or something and they will strike up a casual conversation. In the midst of that conversation, they will find out details about where the student lives and when they're going to be back. Can you talk a little bit about that and like protecting your privacy with people that you meet?

[00:15:48] Jennifer McMahon: Yeah. I think the biggest thing is when you're at a bar and if you're drinking and of course you're getting a little more loose lip, things like that. Again, bad guys are looking for those situations and they'll ask you questions that you don't even realize how they're wording it to get information out of you. Or they'll offer to walk you back to your house or things like, now they know where you live, or they'll watch you get your key from under the mat or under your wheel well because you left them there so you don't have to bring your keys in. And again, they're looking for all of that. So, I mean, the biggest piece of advice is do, do not. If you don't know someone, they don't need to know that about you. You know, you don't know this person. They have no business knowing where you live, where you're going. We share way too much information.

[00:16:33] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yeah, well, and you had mentioned that earlier about being wary of what you're sharing on social media.

Jennifer McMahon: Yes.

Rachel Kleindorfer: You know, making sure that you're not posting when you know you're actively like out of town, showing that you're out of town for a long period of time, just kind of protecting yourself. Post the photos after you get back. I think that's one of the best things you can do to protect yourself.

[00:16:54] Jennifer McMahon: Especially if your accounts are public. Snapchats are public. I mean, anybody can see these.

[00:16:59] Rachel Kleindorfer: Yeah. Making your accounts private is also pretty useful in that regard as well.

[00:17:04] Kelly Cantwell: So on that same note of prevention, what does UCPD do to prevent burglaries?

[00:17:11] Rachel Kleindorfer: So something I'll do as the analyst is I'll be looking at different crime trends. So I've talked a lot about some of the crime trends that have happened over the summer, for example, and that's kind of when we were beginning to discover, to discover common methods of entry.

It's trying to identify if this person is, you know, working alone, for example, or has, like, a small group, how are they evading, you know, police, for example, are there specific areas and specific times that they're targeting? You know, looking at all of that stuff is really important. And once I determine, and that's where those ring cameras can really come into handy, because sometimes I don't get the report until the next morning. So it's, I have a window to work with at best, sometimes. So. But if I can find common areas of locations or common paths of travel for these offenders, then I can give that information to our patrol supervisors.

If there is any ring camera footage. That's something, of course, we would give to our investigators, and they can look more closely into that. But I will be base my recommendations off of the data and what I am given, and then I will give those recommendations to our patrol supervisors so they can go out and do directed patrols, have communications with our students, that kind of thing.

[00:18:21] Jennifer McMahon: Yeah, we take that information that poor Rachel has to compile for all of us, and then we have a community engagement team that will go out and say, if it's more of, like, an educational piece, we start seeing trends or maybe some communication out with the students in the neighborhood, things like that. More of like, hey, if you see something, say something. Things like that, we'll have community engagement. Go out and do that. Or if it comes down to our cuff detail, which I don't know if a lot of people know we have a cuff detail, that it's Clifton, Fairfield, Fairview. Forget what it all stands for. It's the four. It's the four areas that we patrol. I'm sorry, I should know that. But they're actually CPD officers that come in. And it's a timeframe. Sometimes it changes based on activity levels and when places are getting hit more, but most of the time it's in the evening hours, over, like in the second and third shift. And those units are just responsible for taking the data that Rachel's compiled and say, okay, so say these streets are, we're seeing a lot of uptick in crime on those streets. They will do directed patrols and watch those streets.

[00:19:41] Darryn Chenault: So that's kind of awesome that UCPD and Cincinnati PD works together.

[00:19:46] Jennifer McMahon: Yes.

[00:19:46] Darryn Chenault: Based off of some of the information that you provide. Correct?

[00:19:49] Rachel Kleindorfer: They're, they're very wonderful to work with. When we were having all of these upticks and burglaries, we were having a lot of conversations with District 1, which is on the south side of campus. That's where we historically have seen a lot of our burglaries before. Not just this past summer, but we had a burglary project there at one point and saw a drastic decrease. But burglaries definitely do still happen in the area. But, yeah, we have monthly meetings with CPD.

[00:20:13] Jennifer McMahon: I was just gonna say make sure you mention that we have monthly or we have quarterly crime reduction meetings and our monthly crime reduction meetings are very important. And Cincinnati shows up. Everybody takes it very serious. Rachel does a whole presentation on what basically she's talking about with pictures and graphs and.

[00:20:34] Rachel Kleindorfer: Right.

[00:20:36] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome. I, once again, I appreciate you guys for coming on today and providing us with all this knowledge, just dropping that big old knowledge on us. So the students, the community, we would love, love, just love that information, just getting it out there. So once again, on behalf of the wonderful Kelly Cantwell over here and Lieutenant McMahon, Rachel Kleindorfer, I got it right that time. Thank you for coming out. Have a great day. All that good stuff.

[00:21:07] Kelly Cantwell: Yep. Thank you for joining us. This is the third episode of Bridging the Gap.

[00:21:11] Darryn Chenault: Bye.

Replace this text component with your accordion's content.

---

[00:00:00] Darryn Chenault: Hello. And we're back to bridging the gap.

[00:00:04] Kelly Cantwell: We are so glad you decided to join us for part two of our conversation with Heather Tinney, addressing common safety questions from parents of our UC students.

[00:00:26] Heather Tinney: I have all these new parents.

What can we as parents be doing? Or let me say it this way. What's the things you see students doing that they probably get themselves into trouble doing? What are the things we can warn them about ahead of time?

[00:00:38] Carra Sparks: Great question.

[00:00:39] Darryn Chenault: That is a great question. Because the turnover is big every year. Obviously we get incoming students every year, so. Wow. I guess the number one thing is kind of get educated. Officer Sparks?

[00:00:50] Carra Sparks: Make smart decisions.

You know, we're not stupid. We know that part of the college experience for many kids is drinking and maybe experiencing other things.

Just be smart about it. And also, we are here to help you if something is going wrong. Maybe you had a bunch of kids to a, bunch of students to your residence hall room, and now there's 30 kids packed in a residence hall room with a bunch of alcohol. And this is not what you want it to happen. It just kind of got out of control.

Call us on yourself.

Make it look like you're not the bad person having a huge party in your dorm room.

We also have the amnesty policy. So if you come to your residence hall room and maybe your roommate is incapacitated, call us. We'll get them the help that they need. We'll get them to the hospital, we'll do an information report, and they'll get sent the student code of conduct.

We don't want someone to be afraid to call police and have a student not survive because they drank too much or took some drugs or, you know, whatever the situation may be, we are truly here to help you.

We want all of our students to learn, earn, and return.

So learn while you're here.

[00:02:07] David Brinker: Did you coin that yourself?

[00:02:08] Carra Sparks: No, that was a Jim Vestring quote.

[00:02:10] David Brinker: I like it.

[00:02:10] Carra Sparks: A retired police officer and he had one son that went here who's an engineer, but yeah, so learn while you're here. Earn once you graduate, make lots of money and then return money to the university. Get a building named after yourself.

[00:02:23] Darryn Chenault: I like that one.

[00:02:24] Carra Sparks: But yeah, we truly care about your safety.

And, you know, mental health is also a huge thing that we deal with. And we pride ourselves on our mental health response to our students that are having mental health crisis. So please do not hesitate to call UC police.

[00:02:41] Greg Valerius: I would say general awareness. I mean, I don't think it's even a generational thing. I think it's just society now. If you have downtime, you're pulling up that phone. When you're standing on the sidewalk, are you paying attention to what's going around you or are you checking what's new on your social media app? I think we all do that. So I think really pushing that awareness, like, hey, maybe look up, see what's going on around you. You know, more than just traffic. But, you know, be more aware. Don't just have your face in your phone when you're walking around in a strange area or if you're not with someone else, like, especially if you're by yourself, be more aware of what's going on around you. Everyone seems to have AirPods or headphones in, so they're not even hearing anything anymore. So take one AirPod out or just, you know, put it on mute while you're crossing the street. I think just the simpler steps for safety are the most effective. And I think just general awareness and general, just be on the lookout and trusting your gut, I think is some of the best things you can do to stay safe while you're here.

[00:03:35] David Brinker: Greg made some good resources. I used the term earlier on resources, community. We want to be resourceful to our community members.

And really the biggest thing, if you're a new student on campus or just living off campus, be mindful of who you are and your own strengths and weaknesses. So obviously, if I have my. I have a daughter, she'll be here next year. So as a daughter, there's going to be different concerns for her safety versus my son when he comes to UC, right? So as a daughter, you know, hey, if you go out to a party, I want you to be mindful of, hopefully you're not drinking and doing stuff like that, but if you are, I want you to be smart about it. You know, have a buddy system and be aware.

International students, we have a big international student population and look at the times, what's going on now. Our country is changing. We have a new presidency, new people coming in, and we've already seen it blowing up where, you know, international students are being targeted. Hey, they're going to send a message. Hey, unless you pay us this $10,000, you're going to be deported, that type of thing. So we want those international students to reach out to us. Hey, I got this message. Whether it's email, text, voicemail, come to UC if you see Officer Valerius on the street. Hey, can you help me out here? I'm really scared. I got this. I'm afraid I'm going to be deported and we can help vet that for you. So the key is, you know, depending on who you are as a student, where you're from, what your background is, we all have different strengths and weaknesses that we really need to be aware of and try to overcome.

[00:04:56] Darryn Chenault: What are some of the other concerns out there with the parents?

[00:05:01] Heather Tinney: This is a silly one, but why do the alerts and the clearances come from two different phone numbers?

Because not everybody gets the alert and the clearance. They might get one, but not the other.

[00:05:13] Kelly Cantwell: That is all to do with the company that we use. And we have no ability to make it come from just one phone number.

That was just one of those, like, technology things that you just can't fix.

And I think the other thing with technology is that it's not foolproof. So even me as the person who is sending some of these alerts, you know, I'm the one who hits that button sometimes. I don't always receive every single text to my phone.

That's one of the other things that. I mean, you get them via email, too. But then the students and faculty and staff who have that Guardian app also receive it on the Guardian app. And I get it faster on the Guardian app than it comes in any other method.

So.

[00:06:01] Heather Tinney: I know a lot of parents are concerned about the fights that happen after school lets out.

I think the being aware is probably a big part of it. I talk to my kids about that. Take the headphones off, be looking around you. They've had the benefit of traveling around the world, right? They've been overseas, so they've had that benefit, but a lot of students haven't. So what are some things that students can do to maybe be more aware in that situation or even to get themselves out of a bad situation when they're in it?

[00:06:30] Darryn Chenault: Now you talk about fights after school. Are you talking about the high school?

[00:06:33] Heather Tinney: Sometimes the high school. I'm also thinking of fights that happen as bars let out. Like, you know, nothing good happens at 2 a.m. as the bars let out. Right. So there are situations that they might find themselves in the middle of. How can they use the Guardian app or maybe extract themselves from these?

Anything they can do?

[00:06:53] Greg Valerius: I mean, get creative. I mean, all of a sudden, Mom's calling me, sorry, I gotta step out. I gotta get away from this. If you're in, like, an awkward situation, you get out.

I don't think there's a parent out there that if they texted you and say, hey, can you give me a call real quick? They're not just gonna call them right away, right?

You can call our department and, you know, and pretend like you're talking to someone else if you want to.

But really, most of the fights that we see on Calhoun street, and it's a growing issue, and our office is well aware of it and working on ways to, you know, combat that issue, is really. It's not so much random acts from what we've seen. It's more so these groups, every issue they have going in school, they decide to take it out on Calhoun street after the fact. So obviously, we don't want that to interfere with other people. We don't want it to happen in the first place.

But most of the time, from what I've seen, it's happening out there, and it's not really just grabbing random people and affecting them. So, like, if you see a group starting to congregate, you see a group starting to yell or have words, you know, get out of there.

A lot of times it's quick and over, and then, you know, we're right there to try and take care of it. But the fights haven't been as random acts, I would say.

[00:08:08] Darryn Chenault: And I think going back to what one of you guys said before, listen to your, pay attention to your gut. You know, a lot of our kids want to run to the fight to see what's going on and record it. Yeah, that's the worst thing you can do.

Go in the opposite direction. I tell my girls all the time, cross the street, go a different way. Maybe longer, but go a different way so you get home safe. And as far as being out late at night, I always use the excuse to get out of there before the actual bar closes. You know, you want to get out of there early.

I tell them to act like you're taking a phone call and you got to take it outside and keep on going. You know, that's the best way to kind of break yourself away from the situation, so to speak. I definitely understand where you're coming from. That's a big concern of mine, too.

[00:08:54] David Brinker: So the key, I think the key here is non escalation. De escalation is really the key. Remove yourself from the area if you have to create some type of distraction, but really don't want to escalate anything. You know, we don't want to get in confrontation. Unfortunately, when you're young, sometimes, maybe especially if you're a guy, you might want to challenge him a little bit, you know, that type of thing. And maybe your ego will get in the way, but we really encourage you not to do that. And really, non escalation, de escalation is really the key because as Greg mentioned, it's, you know, or Carra, you know, people like to get out their cell phones and record things. Next thing you know you got a big circle forming and, you know, just bad things can happen.

[00:09:30] Kelly Cantwell: So, and I think as a follow up to that too, people have a tendency to record things and they also have a tendency to not call 911.

You assume someone else is doing it or you're too busy trying to take a video, you're not going to call the police.

Don't assume someone else has called the police.

[00:09:46] David Brinker: Yeah, that's a great point. You know, and sometimes like on Calhoun Street, when we're dealing with some of the local kids in the area, some of the juveniles, sometimes it can be kind of hard to decipher what's going on because when these high school kids get out, you know, they're full of energy, they're kind of running around and sometimes it looks like maybe to you and I or someone in the area that they're fighting, really they're just playing around, you know what I mean? So it's all, it's kind of that. Is this really a fight going on here or are they just goofing around? So that causes, you know, some little bit anxiety as well. But you gotta, you know, kind of assess the area, try, try to analyze, you know, who's involved here. You know, if it's a high school kid, it may be just, you know, they're still a little bit immature, right? They just got that pent up energy because they got out of the school and they're kind of running around acting a little crazy. In reality, they're not there to harm anybody. They're just, it's just how they act, just how they act. Unfortunately.

[00:10:33] Darryn Chenault: I think we got time for a couple more questions and then we'll probably wrap this up. So.

[00:10:40] Heather Tinney: This is an old adage, but a lot of us that used to be around UC heard this, that in order to stay safe, don't buy drugs. And if you do buy the drugs, pay for them. Is that still? That's a silly one.

[00:10:54] Darryn Chenault: Yeah, definitely. We all kind of open our eyes.

[00:10:58] Heather Tinney: I actually heard that from a UC police about 20 years ago.

[00:11:01] David Brinker: Really? Interesting.

[00:11:03] Darryn Chenault: I'm going to say stay away from drugs.

[00:11:04] Heather Tinney: I would agree with that too. I would say don't buy the drugs.

[00:11:08] David Brinker: Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. You shouldn't be using drugs to begin with.

[00:11:12] Darryn Chenault: I think the biggest thing with that is, you know, the kids who are buying drugs off the street, you just don't know what's in it nowadays, you know, everything's being laced with fentanyl and something else. And, you know, I tell my kids all the time, just make sure you come home. So in order to do that, don't buy them. You know, I know for some kids, they are, you know, I won't say they're addicted to it, but they just want to experiment.

Yeah. So that's the key, because you don't know what's in it. You know, I know a couple of times I've been across a situation where the kid has experimented and it's been laced with fentanyl. And that's not something, you know, I want mom and dad to know that their kids are coming home.

I think as officers and everybody here, that's our biggest thing, is to send your kids back home.

[00:11:56] Heather Tinney: Right. And I ask that question mainly because we know that in Ohio, the situation's changed, right? Yes, marijuana is now legal. And so things are changing for parents as they send their kids here.

[00:12:10] David Brinker: But that, you know, that raises a whole other issue because, you know, marijuana is legal, but it's in specific forms. Right. So, you know, we have that problem sometimes up in. In the general public because someone might be smoking some marijuana, but legally, you know, you can't be out in the middle of a sidewalk just smoking a joint. Right. Just like alcohol. Alcohol is legal, but you can't walk down the street with a can of beer in your hand and walk around intoxicated. So that causes some confusion there. The biggest thing is abstain from it. That's what we really encourage. And if you're buying it, unfortunately, you know, some of the locals, you know, that they know, hey, this is a new college kid, and they might try to take advantage of you. That's how you end up with robberies and other things going on. So not only you have to worry about being laced and you could become very ill, sick, or even die, but you got to worry about being robbed because of locals know, hey, this is some new college kids up here, and they're gonna try to take advantage of them, and they're gonna take your backpack and your cell phone, your laptop or whatever it is, and your cash.

So that's always something you gotta be worried about as well as being robbed from purchasing that marijuana.

[00:13:09] Carra Sparks: Over the years, we've had multiple drug deals gone bad.

If you're gonna do that, obviously we don't want you to. But don't invite the dealer into your house to see everything that you have in your house. They know where you live, you know, maybe meet them somewhere or just do it outside.

Just try to be as smart as possible if you're doing stuff like that.

[00:13:32] Heather Tinney: I think the other question that a lot of parents have is for those that are living on campus in UC housing, what are some of the things that you see students do wrong that maybe bring problems into the housing? So, like, not watching the doors, not locking things. What do you see that they can be doing right?

[00:13:52] Darryn Chenault: Propping the doors open is one. That's the biggest one that stands out because my friend is coming in five minutes, so I'm gonna prop this door open, and that allows a homeless person or somebody off campus to come into the housing part.

I'm sure it's others out there, but.

[00:14:07] David Brinker: Really the biggest thing is, you know, say you're living in a residence hall on campus and you're getting. You're going into a locked facility because all residence halls have access control. So in order to get into it, you have to go through a locked door.

But then when you maybe get up to the third floor or whatever floor you're living on, the problem is you don't lock the door to your residence to your apartment, right? They leave that wide open. Hey, they leave their door wide open, then they go down the hall to their buddy's house and hang out with them.

But the problem is, on any given night, students let other friends and acquaintances into the residence hall, right?

So now, while you're down the hall in Kelly's room hanging out, playing PS4, whatever you're doing, Carra and his buddies came over and maybe Carra's got a friend who's not the most upstanding citizen, see that your room's wide open, and now he steals your PS4 system, right?

So you gotta be worried about the other students and who they're bringing in. You don't know who necessarily who they're bringing in.

So the key is, just because you're living in a locked facility, you still have to lock the door to your residence. Whenever you go in and out of that room, make sure you shut it. Make sure you lock it.

And then when you have people over, when you have, you know, when you're socializing and you invite friends over, because if you're living in a room with, say, three other roommates, they're going to invite people over who you don't know, right? And they're going to be in your room for the first time and now all your property's on display and just. You never know what could happen. So, you know, encourage to have conversations with your roommate, say, hey, listen, when you leave, please lock the door because I live here as well. I don't want my stuff stolen.

And please don't let random people into the room, because sometimes you have people who invite uninvited guests over. You wake up and there's some random dude sleeping on your couch, and that can cause some, some anxiety for people, and that creates tension for roommates.

So it's, it's tough. It's tough. So the key is communication. Talk to each other, talk to roommates. Hopefully you have good roommates that communicate well, respectful of each other, and you can work through those, through those challenges.

[00:16:03] Carra Sparks: Also, our fire guys would appreciate me saying, please don't overload the dryers.

They smoke, and I don't know if the clothes get ruined, but the fire department has to respond, and we see that a lot.

Also, watch your clothes as you're doing laundry. We've had clothes stolen right out of washing and drying machines, so that would really stink to lose your whole wardrobe.

[00:16:27] David Brinker: You made a great point. So the fire extinguisher hanging down from your ceiling in your room, that's not a clothesline. You know, you can't hang your shirts up on that.

[00:16:36] Heather Tinney: Also, don't do pull ups on the pipes in the Deacon.

[00:16:40] Carra Sparks: Don't hang decorations on the sprinkler system.

[00:16:42] Heather Tinney: Oh, yeah, yeah. Don't do pull ups on the pipes in the Deacon.

[00:16:46] Kelly Cantwell: And you all also talk about writing down serial numbers for your belongings, right?

[00:16:50] Carra Sparks: Yeah, anything of value. A laptop, a gaming system, your cell phone, any headphones, anything that's over a couple hundred dollars. I would keep track of the serial numbers in case they do get stolen. Most of the time, these things end up at pawn shops. So there is a chance, if you have your serial number, we could potentially get it back. So please keep track of your serial numbers.

[00:17:11] Heather Tinney: Are safes helpful?

[00:17:13] Kelly Cantwell: Don't save your serial numbers in your phone.

[00:17:15] Carra Sparks: Yeah, have them written down somewhere.

[00:17:17] Darryn Chenault: You said safes, like?

[00:17:18] Heather Tinney: Like safes in the room for putting stuff away in or?

[00:17:21] Darryn Chenault: Yeah, I would totally agree with a safe. Yeah. I mean, that just secures it even more. So. That's, that's always good.

[00:17:27] David Brinker: And the key is don't bring everything. You know, when you come here for the first time, they want to bring, like, their whole house with them. Right.

[00:17:32] Carra Sparks: Fish tanks.

[00:17:33] David Brinker: You don't need all this stuff. You know, just bring the bare, you know, the bare necessities. And then, you know, feel it out for a couple weeks and you'll figure out what you need and what you don't need, but you end up with all this property that you don't really need, then you just got to take it home.

[00:17:46] Heather Tinney: It's a lot to move. We always hit that, like, come with the minimum. There's a Target and a Kroger nearby, right. They can order Amazon right across the street. Anything that they don't have. You don't need to buy everything now.

[00:17:58] Darryn Chenault: That's right. Because once you move in, you got to move out.

[00:18:00] Heather Tinney: And we always show them the piles at the dumpsters of how much stuff gets left behind that never gets opened.

[00:18:09] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome. I appreciate it. I didn't know if you had another question or not, but.

[00:18:14] Heather Tinney: No, thank you, guys. This has been very informative. I've learned things. Like I said, I've been around UC for a long time, and I've learned things today I did not know before. I think my parents are going to really enjoy this.

[00:18:24] Darryn Chenault: Well, I want to thank, I definitely want to thank the Community Engagement team at the University of Cincinnati, and I also want to thank you for coming on today. It's been an honor to have you. Hopefully we can reach those parents and kind of get rid of some of that false sense of.

[00:18:41] Heather Tinney: Yeah.

[00:18:41] Darryn Chenault: That's going around with the parents, including myself. So obviously, thank you for helping us bridge that gap a little bit better.

[00:18:49] Kelly Cantwell: And I think maybe one of our biggest takeaways is we want to talk to parents. We want to engage with parents. We want to hear from you, we want to hear from your students.

So please don't hesitate to reach out to us. There are a lot of ways to reach out to us. Greg and Carra are great at talking to parents about their concerns. We have a public safety email.

We have a phone line. Talk to us.

[00:19:12] Heather Tinney: And I'll share all of those in our group. Keep them pinned.

[00:19:17] Darryn Chenault: Thank you.

[00:19:17] David Brinker: We appreciate that.

[00:19:18] Heather Tinney: Thank you.

[00:19:20] Darryn Chenault: And my mama would say we're done.

[00:19:45] Darryn Chenault: Thank you for joining us for part two.

[00:19:45] Kelly Cantwell: Hit subscribe to be notified when our next episode drops.

[00:19:48] Darryn Chenault: And we look forward to bridging the gap with you very soon. Have a great day.

---

[00:00:00] Darryn Chenault: Hey. Hello. I am Police Officer Darren Chenault.

[00:00:03] Kelly Cantwell: And I'm Public Information Officer Kelly Cantwell. And we are the hosts of the University of Cincinnati Public Safety Department's podcast, Bridging the Gap.

[00:00:13] Darryn Chenault: Bridging the gap, indeed. Bridging the gap means furthering our connections with our community.

We hope that this podcast will be another way in which we can connect with you, the students, faculty, parents, and the community members so that we can share more about what we do and why we do it and learn more about our community needs.

[00:00:38] [Upbeat music]

[00:00:47] Darryn Chenault: So we're here. I'm glad to be here. We're here. Bridging the gap. I love that term, don't you, Kelly?

[00:00:54] Kelly Cantwell: I do.

[00:00:54] Darryn Chenault: Bridging the gap. Bridging the gap is between the University of Cincinnati Police Department and the UC community.

So we're thrilled to be here today with our first podcast. My host over here, Kelly Cantwell, Public Information Officer. I'm glad you're here to join us today.

[00:01:12] Kelly Cantwell: Absolutely. And you need to introduce yourself.

[00:01:15] Darryn Chenault: Obviously. Darryn Chenault. 20 years plus law enforcement with the University of Cincinnati. So great to be here. I'm joined by a crew today that I. Oh, I'm so proud of. I actually work with these guys, so. Community engagement, University of Cincinnati. Community engagement.

So I'm gonna let these guys introduce themselves, starting over here with Mr. Officer Valerius.

[00:01:40] Greg Valerius: Yeah, Officer Greg Valerius. I've been with UC for over 10 years now. Started out on patrol to eight years on night shift.

Got my master's degree while I was coming here to take advantage of the tuition, really like a lot of the benefits UC has to offer and, you know, the advantages we have working for such a big institution.

Spent our times at Blue Ash campus second shift patrol, and I've been in this assignment for the last year or so. Community engagement is a lot of community outreach, a lot of presentations, a lot of problem solving. We pretty much are the catch all the department. You know, wherever there's an issue, our office gets pretty busy.

[00:02:17] Carra Sparks: Carra Sparks.

I started here in 2009 as a security officer. I had just turned 19.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew it paid a little bit more than I was currently making.

And it was retirement, full health benefits. And I text my dad and he said, apply ASAP. Free tuition.

So I've worked here 15 years now. I went to UC Clermont Police Academy in 2012, bumped up to full time police in 2014.

So I've been a police officer for over 10 years now, and I've been in community engagement for five years. I really just love our community meetings and giving presentations to our students, faculty, and staff and trying to educate everyone on how to be safe on and off campus.

[00:03:02] David Brinker: These guys, they really do a great job. So I'm David Brinker. I've been here for 21 years.

You know, when I was a kid, you know, some. Some officers, they dream they want to be an officer when they grow up. When I was growing up, I had really no idea what I wanted to do. You know, my biggest dream was being a garbage man. I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. Running around on the back of a garbage truck, throwing stuff in there. Back in the day, you had to pick it up and throw it in.

[00:03:23] Carra Sparks: I still want to do that now.

[00:03:23] David Brinker: It's all automatic.

[00:03:24] Carra Sparks: Yeah, I still want to do that.

[00:03:25] David Brinker: But I went to school and I actually got a degree in accounting and sitting behind a desk for, you know, a couple years, like, I don't know if I want to do this, you know, just doing a lot of, you know, numbers and paperwork. I was like, you know, I really want to get out and help people.

So I decided to go to the police academy. You know, I thought about fire service a little bit, but, man, you know, putting on that scva, too claustrophobic. That's not for me. I'd rather get shot at. But I'll never forget the day my dad was up cleaning the gutters. I was like, dad, I quit my job and I'm gonna go to the police academy. He's like, you did what?

So I went to the police academy.

Long story short, after some ins and outs, I ended up here. I've been here for 21 years.

I really like that analytical side. So I've done a lot of work in our investigative section at the time. Oversaw our investigative section. I really like that kind of puzzle work. Figuring things out and, you know, solving that puzzle and then helping people, you know, get their property back or, you know, helping them with whatever it is they want to accomplish.

But over the last couple years, I oversaw our community engagement unit. We did this big problem solving project with burglaries off campus. And with that, I got involved in community engagement side and really saw, like, the prevention. So really, in law enforcement, we want to try to prevent crime, not just respond to it. I really enjoyed that prevention piece, and I kind of got my foot in the door in community engagement. So here I am now.

[00:04:49] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome. Before I jump into my special, special guest today, I just want to make sure everybody knows that we're going to talk about safety on and off the campus. As a dad who has two daughters here at the university, that's been a big old concern of ours. So today I want to take the time to introduce our special guest, Ms. Heather Tenney. I'm going to let Heather talk about herself a little bit and shine that light on everything.

[00:05:18] Heather Tenney: Well, hi, I am Heather Tenney. I. I've been around UC in some form or another for about 25 years, either coming to hang out up here as a college kid myself, or my husband works here, or my kids go here.

And I run the UC Parents group on Facebook. We have about 10,000 parents who have students here at UC, and I hear a lot of what they're concerned about.

I hear a lot of what new parents are concerned about, what they want to know.

And I love this idea of getting together to figure out what we can do to prepare our students and what our students can be doing to be safer, what we as parents can do to help steward them as they make those transitions from being at home to being in college.

[00:06:07] Darryn Chenault: I tell you what, when I dropped my oldest off at campus here, I was so terrified.

And it's kind of. It's funny because I work down here in community engagement, so I kind of know what's going on. So today I have to play parent, fellas. I'm gonna jump out of this whole officer role, and I'll play parent.

What are you guys doing as far as community engagement to keep my two daughters safe, Officer Valerius?

[00:06:32] Greg Valerius: Put me on the spot right off the bat.

[00:06:36] Darryn Chenault: I'm gonna put you right on the spot because it's the only way to get it started.

[00:06:40] Greg Valerius: I mean, I think to talk about what we're doing, we have to acknowledge our difficulties, too. You know, as a police department, crime is going to evolve. You know, our complications are going to evolve. You know, technology is not what anyone imagined would be 10, 15 years ago.

On top of that, we're a campus police department, so our population changes every single year. And with that, you know, I feel like just like the professors and the staff, we have to educate the freshmen every year, try to get them up to speed, because they're coming from all walks of life. We have a very large, as your husband knows, international student base, and they're not even familiar. You know, forget about what Cincinnati is. What is the United States of America, you know, and where are the.

What. What's the sort of climate and. And way that they go about their everyday life around here? Because it's it's not the same as the Middle east or in Asia or wherever else you could be coming from. So that from there, from the get go, we are a, we have big hill to climb. My viewpoint.

So really one of the big things we do is we just try and be consistent. We try to be constantly improving, constantly trying to get out in front of it as best we can, but we don't always know what we're going to be faced with. A lot of times we get complaints from some neighborhood civilians that have nothing to do with uc, but they live in the area. And I tell them, I was like, you know, we try and get information out to our students about how to be good neighbors and that sort of thing, but. But we don't know what the problem house is gonna be till they're already a problem.

So it's like, how do you get out in front of that? How do you actually reach who is gonna be the issue ahead of time? If I knew that, I'd be making a lot more money doing something else. Right.

Because that would be the ultimate solution. So as far as what we do, we work with our community partners as much as we possibly can. There's not a meeting opportunity that we turn down as a community engagement unit. We, we are there everywhere we can be because we want people to know, first and foremost, reach out to us. We're here for you. So many people are timid to reach out to the police department. They think either wasting our time or they don't trust law enforcement or really they don't even know what we could do for them. They don't know what their rights are. And so really just building that bond from the get go and having them feel more like we're a resource for them is how I think our unit works to try to get out in front of the crime off campus.

[00:09:01] Darryn Chenault: That's awesome.

[00:09:03] David Brinker: Greg's making me proud. Couldn't say any better. Great job, Greg.

[00:09:06] Darryn Chenault: Ms. Tenney. I mean, what do you think and as far as your group goes, what are some of the concerns out there?

[00:09:13] Heather Tenney: I hear a lot about car break ins. Actually, I'm hearing a lot less this year about car break ins than we have in previous years. So whatever you guys have done to fix the gates and fix that has been amazing. But yeah, car break ins, we hear a lot. I hear a lot of questions about how safe is it to walk across campus late at night.

Right.

Is it safe to walk to raising canes at night?

And you know, there have been earlier in the year until it got really cold. There was, we heard a lot about some gun crime in the neighborhood. And so those are kinds of the things that I think our parents are most worried about.

How do they stop their kids from being victims and how do they stop their kids from being dumb? Because, you know, we all do dumb things when we're 18, 19, 20 years old, right?

[00:09:59] Kelly Cantwell: Absolutely.

[00:09:59] Heather Tenney: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:01] Carra Sparks: I'll hit on car break ins. The biggest thing that we tell our students whenever we get a chance to talk to a class of students, I talked to 30 yesterday in CCM.

If you have a car on campus or you live off campus and you park off campus, I should be able to look into your car and not see anything.

I don't want to see two quarters in a cup holder. I don't want to see a charging cord, an old pair of shoes on your backseat, a hoodie in your backseat. Because some of our local clientele, they could really use a hoodie.

If they're homeless or if they're an addict, that 50 cents could really help them out with whatever they're wanting to get. So don't make yourself an easy target.

Most of the time these bad guys will walk the street and they'll try door handles. So lock your car and then don't give them a reason to break the window to get into the car. And then once they're in your car, they go through the center console in the glove box looking for stuff. So keep as little amount of things in your car as possible.

[00:11:02] Heather Tenney: So a question that I've had, do dash cams help with that at all? Having a dash cam, does that prevent anything or do you see it not really effective?

[00:11:12] Carra Sparks: I'm not too familiar with dash cams. I don't have any, any knowledge on if that would prevent it. I would say probably not.

You know, especially if they're homeless or if they're an addict or if they're just a criminal. There's cameras everywhere. People don't care. Crime's still going to happen.

I think for a normal good citizen, they see a camera and they're like, oh, okay, good, that's nice. But the bad guys don't really care about cameras.

[00:11:39] Kelly Cantwell: So on that line, there are the things you shouldn't be doing. But what about like, are there any other products? I mean, there are steering wheel locks, but that's more for auto theft versus theft from autos, actually stealing a car. But is there anything parents can provide for their children if they're worried? Have you seen anything that's effective or is it more just Keeping your car clean and locked?

[00:12:02] Carra Sparks: Yeah, I don't think there's. Unless you know of something. I don't know of any products. I mean, I have tinted windows on my truck. They should be legal. But if that reduces the opportunity for the bad guy to look in and not see anything that could help you out.

But yeah, I think the biggest thing is just don't leave anything in plain view. Use the trunk, lock your door, and even the change in the cup holder, a charging cord, sunglasses on the dash, something like that.

They could easily sell something like that and get some cash.

[00:12:36] David Brinker: And the key here is opportunity. We want to take the opportunity away.

Greg, we had some videos recently for some off campus residents where they have like some ring doorbell cameras and it perfectly shows a bad guy walking up the driveway. As he's walking up, he's trying the door handles on the car. Right. He's looking for that opportunity to get in. This particular guy, he didn't want to create noise and attract himself by smashing a window, but he was looking for that opportunity just by.

So the biggest thing is to take that opportunity away. Don't have anything in the car. This is a constant battle for me with my kids and wife. You know, most cars today, a lot of the newer cars are a push button start, right. So what do people do? Just throw their keys in the cup holder or whatever. They get in, get out as they please. And I constantly preach to them, do not leave your keys in the car. And my daughter, she's young, she leaves her purse on the seat, gift cards laying around, and I try to tell her, please stop doing that. You know, as a dad, I'll take the stuff and I'll hide it for a day, see if she misses it. Half the time she doesn't even know I took it.

So it's a constant battle. But the key is education. And I like what you touched on earlier is prepare our students. So the key is try to educate them, prepare them as much as possible.

It's the old saying, you can take a horse to water, but you can't make them drink. Right. But we can just keep trying to educate them as best as we can and hopefully eventually it'll sink in.

[00:13:55] Darryn Chenault: We talked about some safety issues with walking at night.

What are some of the things we can do to walk at night? I know we talk about apps.

You see students have apps on their phones.

[00:14:06] Kelly Cantwell: Yeah, I can hit on that a little bit because I work a lot with our campus safety app. It's called Bearcat Guardian. We really try to push that out to students as much as possible and also parents to make them aware.

But that has a lot of really nice features. It has one that I think I would have used a lot as a college student. You know, my friends and I were always like, well, text me when you get back from the library. Because we would walk to our rooms at midnight or one in the morning.

And the Guardian app lets you select someone to watch you walk home. So it'll send them a text message. It can be anyone with a cell phone.

It'll send them a text message with a link. They can click on the link and then they can just watch you walk home. So a student can have their parent or their friend or anyone they want watching them walk home. It also lets you pick UC Police as a person that you can be notified.

And if you pick UC police, the police officers are not going to watch you walk home.

And I think generally, police speaking, students don't want that. But what it does do if you pick UC police is it notifies our dispatch if you don't turn off your safety timer in time. So they will get, if, if they're notified that you haven't turned off your safety timer, they get all your information from your Guardian profile. So I can't just go in and say, hey, this is Greg's phone number and he's currently using a timer. But if Greg's timer goes off because he didn't turn it off in time, I'm going to get his phone number and I'm going to get his safety profile information so I'll know if he has a medical condition that maybe our police officers should be aware of.

I'm going to know his local address. If he's filled that out, what his car looks like, you know, anything that he wants to provide, we would receive that. If he's not turning off his safety time or time.

So that's really nice because our officers get all that information before they respond. And our dispatcher can take that person's phone number and try to contact them. You know, maybe they just forgot to turn off their timer so they can try and contact them. But then we have an idea of where they might be because we would then have their location.

And it does remind you, the app reminds you to turn it off if you might have, like, gotten home and just kind of forgotten about it. But if, you know, if your daughter or your son picked you as the guardian, it would text you and tell you that they hadn't turned off their timer in time.

[00:16:40] Heather Tenney: Well, and I think that's. I didn't know that it had that feature. I think that's a brilliant idea.

Life360 is so popular amongst college students. They watch each other as they go places. I didn't know the Bearcat Guardian app did that. And also having a chance child on the spectrum. Right. And I know a lot of our parents have children on the spectrum or neurodivergent or anxious that having that feature where they know somebody is keeping track of them for that time and can call and check in. I think that's a really brilliant feature. I love that you guys do that. I didn't know that.

[00:17:14] Kelly Cantwell: Yeah.

Other thing that I really love about the app is it lets you have a conversation with UC police.

You know, it's. It can be hard to get a college student to make a phone call or someone might be in a situation where they cannot make a phone call, where they might escalate the situation that they're in by making a phone call.

So you can send UC police a message and it will go right into our dispatch center. It makes this obnoxious blaring noise on their computer. Like, there's no way our dispatcher is not going to know that your message just came through.

And it allows you to share your location in that message. It allows you to send pictures or videos in that message. So you can be providing us with all this information in real time. And it has an anonymous feature. So if someone is concerned, I mean, we always ask people to not use that if at all possible. But if the option is don't give us information or turn on anonymous, we would like the information.

So it has that feature too to allow people to share things with us. And we have had a couple situations where our dispatchers have received awards from the company that we use for this app because of how they've handled situations with that chat feature where they've been able to get help to students who have needed it through using that chat. You know, students who were in moments of crisis, they were able to get that help without escalating the. The situation. Because of that chat feature.

[00:18:43] Darryn Chenault: It sounds like we're doing a lot to protect our kids.

I'm impressed. I'm impressed.

Ms. Tenney, do you have any other questions?

[00:18:54] Heather Tenney: I think that. So one of the big questions we have in our group often is where is your jurisdiction in. So, for example, we have a rule in our group that we only allow published reports or UC reports when we talk about crime. But I had a parent contact me just two days ago. About a attempted break in at VP3 and they weren't sure whether to call UC Police or whether to call Cincinnati police on that.

[00:19:23] Darryn Chenault: My daughter stays in VP3. Hopefully that wasn't my wife calling.

I'm sure Lt. Brinker can probably address that.

[00:19:30] David Brinker: Yeah, that's a great question. We get that all the time. So our jurisdiction is university owned property.

[00:19:35] Heather Tenney: Okay.

[00:19:35] David Brinker: But it gets muddy because university right now there's a housing shortage on campus. So the university, we put students out in what's called block leases in apartments and different facilities just off campus.

So in that case, say VP3. And I don't know if we currently have a block lease of VP3 or not, but say the university puts Greg and Carra in an apartment in VP3 as part of a block lease. Technically they're off campus, but UC play. So that causes even more confusion. So I'll be calling UC police. Should I call some society police? You know, the biggest thing we say is if it's an emergency, you just call 911. Right? Call 911. And all you have to worry about is, you know, we're going to get resources to you and you don't care where it's coming from, whether it's Cincinnati or UC police, resources will get to you.

If it's a non emergency, say you know, you had your walk out to your car in the garage. Next thing you know you see the window bus there. Right. If you're unsure, I always advocate call UC police. You know, because we want to really pride ourselves on being resourceful for our students, faculty and staff. So call us and we can make that determination if it's our primary jurisdiction or not. And if it's not, we'll stay there with you. Call Cincinnati police, ask them to come over and get you the resources to help you out. So the number one thing is call 911 if it's an emergency. If you're unsure, call UC Police and we can help navigate that for you and help get you the resource that does come up a lot. So just on campus, again, our jurisdiction is your university owned property, but we have a lot of students that live just off campus and it's an area that we call our CSR. Have you ever heard that term before?

So the CSR stands for concentration of student residents. So many years ago the university did a survey and realized that, hey, you know, just off campus on Wheeler or Stratford Chickasaw, just be a short vine area.

We have a lot of kids that live in that area. Right, but technically it's not University owned property. But we have students living there, so we have a vested interest to make sure you know they're safe and be resourceful and help them out. So we created the CSR, which is don't hold me to the numbers here, but about a two mile radius around campus where we know there's a large concentration of students that live and in that area we tried to provide as much resources as possible to help serve those students.

Was you aware of that, Darryn?

[00:21:49] Darryn Chenault: I was a little bit.

Not so much in detail like that.

Remember, I'm new to the unit. No, that's awesome.

[00:21:56] David Brinker: Want to make those dads out there, you know, the goal is to inform those dads and make sure you have all the information.

[00:22:02] Darryn Chenault: I guess we're doing all right with our kids, huh?

[00:22:04] Heather Tenney: We're doing all right.

[00:22:05] Greg Valerius: I always push my presentations. Just because it's not our jurisdiction doesn't mean we don't care.

So you know, that's where, especially on seconds and third shift, that's where officers are patrolling. A lot of times we're driving around, we're actually have eyes and ears. If something's happening in that moment, 100% we're going to interfere. We're going to stop that crime from happening. We have mutual aid agreements with City of Cincinnati. We can make that stop. We can hold it and figure it out with our city partners. But we do a lot of community stuff off campus. We do a lot of flyer events, get information out there.

I've had landlords reach out to me. It's like saying, hey, I have some issues with my house. House. Tips for how the bear is cured. Better to work with the students to make sure they're not going to be victimized as much.

We've been involved in site planning and like a local church that's being redeveloped in Corryville, we're off campus a lot more people realize campus is always going to be our primary concern, of course, but our community is off campus, so we have to be out there. I don't want people to think that. Just because it's not our jurisdiction doesn't mean it's not our priority.

[00:23:06] Darryn Chenault: As a dad, do you guys often collaborate with the university and. Sorry, Cincinnati PD, 100%.

[00:23:14] Greg Valerius: I mean all of our officers have a number of Cincinnati officers personal cell phone numbers in their phones. We text each other constantly. We hang out outside of work. We work on projects all the time. I have a number of friends in that department.

There's a very strong bond between our officers and their officers. It's not this Strict wall where we won't talk or socialize with the other department.

[00:23:36] Heather Tenney: Well, and I just want to say that I know that, you know, warmer months bring higher crime rates. Right. And my kids noticed that when the crime was a little bit higher, they noticed your all's presence come up. They told me they noticed yours and Cincinnati police patrolling the Wheeler McMillan area a lot more. They said it was almost four times more from what they were used to. So they noticed that they noticed you guys recognizing that.

[00:24:00] Kelly Cantwell: So maybe someone could talk a little bit about how we use data and directive patrols.

[00:24:06] David Brinker: Sure. Carra, you good or you want me to go with it?

[00:24:08] Carra Sparks: I think that's a lieutenant talking.

[00:24:11] Darryn Chenault: That's the way to do that one.

[00:24:13] David Brinker: All right, I appreciate, Appreciate that.

[00:24:15] Darryn Chenault: Team makes the dream work right there.

[00:24:18] David Brinker: So, Heather, at the university, we collaborate very frequently with the city of Cincinnati.

So if you weren't aware or for our listeners out there that aren't aware, we have a monthly meeting called crime reduction. Have you ever heard of a crime reduction meeting?

[00:24:29] Heather Tenney: None of that one.

[00:24:30] David Brinker: So we have a monthly meeting with the Cincinnati Police Department. We actually just added earlier this week, Kelly. Right. Where we have the two districts that border UC, so we have District 4 and District 1. We have people from their command staff, from their investigative units, from their neighborhood liaison unit come to our department, and we actually go over all the crime data. So here at the University of Cincinnati, we have a crime analyst, and she looks at all the crime data and she provides us all the number to keep us abreast of what's going on, what the issues are, what could be trending, what's going down, so we can adjust our resources accordingly.

So based upon crime trends, we'll allocate those resources accordingly. So here at the University of Cincinnati, we actually contract with the city of Cincinnati to provide additional patrols in the areas based upon what's on, going, going on. So if we notice an uptick of vehicles being broken into or houses being broken into or whatever it is, we'll try to adjust those resources accordingly to provide some visibility. Because the key is we want to prevent crime from happening to begin with. So the key is to provide those what we call visibility patrols in the area. So hopefully it'll, you know, keep the bad guys or bad gals from doing things that are, you know, shouldn't be done and keep them from committing those crimes that begin with. So really pride herself on being data driven, looking at the data, looking at the trends to see what's going on, then adjusting our resources accordingly to try to prevent that crime from happening to begin with. Now, we gotta be realistic. We're all human beings, you know, we're living in a real world. So stuff's gonna happen, right? The crime's not gonna go away? Ideally, yeah, it would be nice to have no crime. But unfortunately, things happen. There is gonna be crime no matter where you're at in the world.

But the key is to try to be preventative as much as possible and look at that data and allocate resources accordingly to prevent things from happening.

[00:26:14] [Upbeat music]

[00:26:20] Kelly Cantwell: Thank you for listening to part one of our conversation with Heather Tenney. Head to our channel to hear part two.

[00:26:26] Darryn Chenault: Bridging the Gap.

---

[00:00:00] Darryn Chenault: Safety matters, whether you are a University of Cincinnati student, parent or employee.

[00:00:05] Kelly Cantwell: Ever wonder what UC Public Safety does to protect our campus?

[00:00:09] Darryn Chenault: Or how you can stay ahead of potential risks? Join us each month for Bridging the Gap, the podcast that connects you to the people, programs, and tips that keep UC safe.

[00:00:21] Kelly Cantwell: Stay informed, stay prepared. Listen now at uc.edu/publicsafety or find Bridging the Gap wherever you stream your podcasts.