Public safety supervisor arrives at the crack of dawn, making sure campus life runs smoothly for students and faculty.
KATE SCHWARTZ
Staff Writer
As Pepperdine students and faculty live and work on campus each day, the Department of Public Safety works tirelessly to ensure campus safety.
Sgt. Eric Barnes is a major part of this effort. After attending both La Habra Heights Fire Academy and Ventura City Police Academy, Barnes started as a booth officer at Pepperdine in 2000. Within six years, he moved up the ranks to the position of a Department of Public Safety supervisor.
Barnes begins his workday at 6 a.m., when he arrives at campus. He then gives a briefing to the other officers and staff on duty about upcoming events and important announcements. This meeting usually lasts about 45 minutes.
Barnes then returns to his office and begins the extensive task of reviewing and responding to e-mails sent to Public Safety.
“I get anywhere from 25 to 50 e-mails just overnight” Barnes said.
After the morning shuffle, the field work begins. Barnes begins with a patrol check in which he briefly inspects the campus and then does specific “area checks” where he scans for parking and safety violations.
After the patrol check, Barnes is responsible for various tasks including opening up the administration building before faculty arrives, raising flags around campus (including the flags in front of the field house and upper campus), stocking the entrance booths with tokens and permits as well as relieving dispatchers and booth attendants.
Barnes emphasized the fact that parking violations are one of the most time consuming problems on campus.
“We can’t really play around with numbers, but we have a lot of parking violations daily,” Barnes said.
Some other daily happenings that Public Safety has to deal with are vehicle lockouts, jumpstarts and letting students into locked dorms. Service calls such as jumpstarts and escort requests make up the majority of Public Safety’s daily tasks, he said.
As if that extensive list is not enough to handle in one day, Public Safety officers such as Barnes tend to the unnoticed things on campus as well. They escort handicap or injured students around Pepperdine’s hilly campus.
“If students have a sprained ankle or a broken leg, we drive them up all the hills at Pepperdine to their classes or wherever they need to go” Barnes said. They will also give the occasional lift to weary students making the trek from the HAWC to Rho Parking Lot.
One might think that a normal workday would conclude after all of these responsibilities are completed but, believe it or not, Barnes is only halfway there.
Around mid-day, the second shift of officers arrives only to repeat what the previous shift did. After a second briefing, patrol check and approval of safety reports written by other officers throughout the day, Barnes said his day is almost over.
This type of day is not uncommon to Barnes and other DPS officers .
“I work a minimum of 10 hours a day,” Barnes said. “At the end of a pay period, I sometimes have up to 50 hours overtime.”
Despite this, Barnes says he loves his job.
“My daily goal is to reduce as much stress possible for students and staff members,” he said. “If that means doing a vehicle jumpstart for a student or opening a classroom for a professor, then count me in. I think it’s very important that the Pepperdine community know that Public Safety cares. We are here to help in every way possible.”
09-28-2006
