Inside look into the police force
Kye Dixson
Issue date: 3/30/09 Section: News
With language such as "10-4," 10-80" and "Signal…insert number here," little is known about the job of the men and women who keep us safe from harm on our own campus. Whether you like them or not, the job of the McNeese Police Department is to keep the peace on campus and the immediate area around school. For the average student to catch a glimpse of what really goes on, I was granted special permission by the head of the MSU PD, Chief Cinnamon Salvador. Chief Salvador herself is a graduate from McNeese, and after a thorough looking over and a very specific set of do's and don'ts, I was granted a "ride along."
Meet Sergeant Justin Mattison. He splits his time between police work and his one year left in school as he purses his degree in criminal justice and minors in human behavioral science and history. Interestingly enough he and his wife attended CONTACT _Con-3CEBF7D91 \c \s \l Mcneese, but he has to be the student and authoritative figure.
Our daytime ride began at 1400hrs (tagline 2:00 p.m.). After a very loud greeting by Sgt. Mattison on the Durango's siren system, I dropped my bag; I then boarded "Unit MP6" with my ears ringing! Even though this was Mattison's idea of a joke, he really takes his job seriously. At about 1415, we preceded the guarded transfer of funds to the bank from various collection sites around campus and then to the bank. At about 1445, Mattison, Officer Marcantel and I, with the help of the student employees, did a parking detail. After the removal of several "boots" and the placement of them on student's vehicles, Mattison then informed that the removal of a vehicle immobilizer by unauthorized personnel (i.e. you the student) is a criminal offense called the "thief of state property." Although Mattison is a police officer, he constantly reminded us of the countless parking tickets he received when he violated parking. In fact, after placing an immobilizer on a student's vehicle at about 1540, the student felt that this was inappropriate to do so in that is was only 20 minutes until 1600hrs, when students can park in faculty parking spots, usually labeled with yellow parking lines (there are over 5,000 parking spots on campus). The student mentioned above was very rude and could have gotten himself into more trouble for posing a verbal threat to an officer (trouble is easy to get into when you are mad), but most of the choices made in the field are of the officer's discretion and Mattison chose to view the student as highly "concerned" and there was no immediate threat to himself or others.
Meet Sergeant Justin Mattison. He splits his time between police work and his one year left in school as he purses his degree in criminal justice and minors in human behavioral science and history. Interestingly enough he and his wife attended CONTACT _Con-3CEBF7D91 \c \s \l Mcneese, but he has to be the student and authoritative figure.
Our daytime ride began at 1400hrs (tagline 2:00 p.m.). After a very loud greeting by Sgt. Mattison on the Durango's siren system, I dropped my bag; I then boarded "Unit MP6" with my ears ringing! Even though this was Mattison's idea of a joke, he really takes his job seriously. At about 1415, we preceded the guarded transfer of funds to the bank from various collection sites around campus and then to the bank. At about 1445, Mattison, Officer Marcantel and I, with the help of the student employees, did a parking detail. After the removal of several "boots" and the placement of them on student's vehicles, Mattison then informed that the removal of a vehicle immobilizer by unauthorized personnel (i.e. you the student) is a criminal offense called the "thief of state property." Although Mattison is a police officer, he constantly reminded us of the countless parking tickets he received when he violated parking. In fact, after placing an immobilizer on a student's vehicle at about 1540, the student felt that this was inappropriate to do so in that is was only 20 minutes until 1600hrs, when students can park in faculty parking spots, usually labeled with yellow parking lines (there are over 5,000 parking spots on campus). The student mentioned above was very rude and could have gotten himself into more trouble for posing a verbal threat to an officer (trouble is easy to get into when you are mad), but most of the choices made in the field are of the officer's discretion and Mattison chose to view the student as highly "concerned" and there was no immediate threat to himself or others.
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