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| University Police Station loacted across from Wellness Center Photo By: Paul Leigh |
Officer David Choi, has been a part of the California State University, Long Beach Police Department for the last year and half. Prior to joining the force at CSULB he worked at the Orange County Sheriffs Department as a reservist for a year and half. However, before Choi decided he wanted to be a police officer he was a pharmaceutical representative.
“The money was good, but at the end of the day I wasn’t satisfied,” Choi said. “I was making six figures easily but my heart wasn’t there.”
Once a person wants to be a police officer he or she can be cut at anytime during the course of the training period. You have to bring your best day in and day out or else you will get cut. Once one graduates the Police Academy, he or she is then classified as an “FTO” or Field Training Officer, and has to be accompanied by a superior officer for the duration of one year. After completion of FTO, then the officer is on “probation” for a year. Probation meaning that if the department doesn’t feel like the officer is up to par he can get released at anytime during his probation period.
“What makes working for CSULB different than working for LAPD or LBPD is that even though the car and the lights and most of the fire power is the same the biggest difference is that every squad car on campus has an AED defibrillator. Even though they are priced anywhere around $1,500-$2,000, the police force is able to have them due to the small size of the force they have,” Night watch Captain Hansen said.
A typical day for Officer Choi consists of a 12 hour shift starting at 7:00 p.m. and ending at 7:00 a.m. with campus patrol for the first few hours of his shift and then traffic stops the rest of the night.
Officer Choi campus patrol usually goes from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. He drives his patrol car around the perimeter of campus starting from the police station up to west campus drive ending his first stop at the Parkside Dorms. He gets out on foot and patrols this area first not only because he works his way to upper campus from her but more importantly because there are several bike racks located at these dorms and with the recent increase in bike thefts police are making their presence know in these areas.
“The people stealing these bikes aren’t CSULB students,” Officer Mullaney said. “Since so many students use cable locks the thieves are able to cut them and their gone in a matter of seconds.”
Choi then patrols the library. He starts his patrol on the fifth floor and makes his way from floor to floor. “I mainly look for students who left their laptop on the table and walked away to the bathroom. I usually wait for them to get back so I can tell them it is not a good idea to leave their stuff out,” Choi said. After patrolling the Student Union next he then hits the streets for traffic stops.
“Performing a traffic stop never gets old,” Choi said. “Its like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. “
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| Emergeny phone located behind soccer field across from parking structures on Palo Verde Photo By: Paul Leigh |
For example, Officer Choi was patrolling 7th street and Bellflower when a truck with a tow hitch attached to it but wasn’t towing anything turned into campus. Officer Choi was pulling him over because you can drive a truck with a tow hitch because it obstructs the view of the license plate. “I pulled him over and noticed that his license plate holder had guns on it, so that brought some suspicion to me,” Choi said. “I approached the car, and upon questioning him about being on parole and searching the car he had all the ingredients of a meth lab, which sent him back to jail.”
“I try to make one arrest per week,” Choi said. “But I am also very fair.” An example of Choi being fair would be when a faculty member was walking to her car one night; she had tripped and fell on her head. There wasn’t any one around at the time. She got up with blood flowing down her face. A passerby saw her and called campus police. Once police arrived they made sure the faculty member got medical attention and then upon conversing with the man who helped her, police learned he had a warrant out for his arrest. Officer Choi then decided that the man did well by calling them about the injured faculty member and told the man to call the court and get his stuff taken care of.
Every officer I encountered said that at the end of the day the only thing that matters is that the campus is still safe and that they get to go home to their families.
