Issue date: 7/22/08 Section: The News

Media Credit: courtesy eastfieldcollege.com Campus police officers patrol the parking lot. [Click to enlarge]

Due to a shortage of permanent officers, campus police chief Tyler Moore is contemplating whether or not to renew the contract with Texas Industrial Service Inc., for three campus security officials. Moore said his department budget does not allow the hiring of permanent police officers, so he wants to continue using contract personnel.

DCCCD police communications supervisor Bill Cook said since the hiring process for permanent officers is so time-consuming it is more expedient to look at contract personnel as an interim measure.

"It's a long drawn out process to hire the police officers," Cook said. "Part of it is the very thorough background checks."

Moore said they are doing the best they can, even though they only have nine police officers and three security personnel.

According to Cook, El Centro College did use TIS' services but stopped because they were able to hire enough officials to cover their campus.

Eastfield first signed with TIS when they faced with a police force shortage of police force last fall. At that time, Moore hired three additional security officers - one to patrol inside the campus and two to patrol outside areas.

"We focus on the outside because a lot of times the perpetrator is caught before they enter the building," Moore said.

Moore said in addition to focusing on campus crimes they also have the authority to write traffic and campus violation tickets for those who park in the fire lanes or handicapped parking spots.

Sgt. Clayton Leffall, a seven year TIS employee and EFC security officer said his goal is to provide a safe environment and to promote crime reporting.

"We don't have a lot of crime," Leffall said. "We just have a lot of rules and policies being broken such as designated smoking areas and parking violations," he said.

Leffall's duties include hallway monitoring, locking and unlocking doors, assisting in securing a large concentration of people and helping, when needed, to patrol the exterior.

Leffall said he enjoys being at Eastfield and said that the students, faculty and staff are great and cooperate very well with him.

Moore said they are doing the best they can, even though they only have nine police officers and three security personnel. He said when coming on campus, especially at night, make sure to practice extreme caution.

Moore said one of their goals for the next school year is to keep students safe.

"We want to continue to provide high quality security to the community," Moore said.

According to the TIS Web site, the company is based in Fort Worth and has been in business since 1969. It states that their purpose is to provide high quality security services, including a uniformed guard, investigations and pre-employment screening to private industry and government agencies in the Fort Worth/ Dallas area.

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Contact Brittney at brittney_serrioz@yahoo.com

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