With the national dialogue about racial tension and excessive police brutality, it becomes easy to forget that more often than not, the police do help keep us safe. It also becomes easy to forget that police, just like everyone else, are human too.
Officer Matthew Droge, more commonly known as #TwitterCop, gives the facts on what all college students need to know about the Riley County Police Department.
Authority
The RCPD and the K-State Police Department have the same amount of authority.
“We go to the same academy, get the same certification,” Droge, said. “The only difference is the jurisdiction.”
The campus police cover all of campus, including adjacent streets, and occasionally work with the RCPD.
Ride along program
The RCPD has a Ride Along program that allows citizens to ride in the passenger seat of a police car while getting a first-hand experience of what our police officers do. According to Droge, all you need to do is fill out an application on the RCPD website and schedule a time which can be as long as you want.
“I thought that is was really interesting when they (RCPD) told us about the Ride Along program, because I feel like there’s a bad stigma toward cops,” Hayley Barkoviak, sophomore in pre-veterinary medicine, said.
The quota myth
Droge said a big misconception that usually gets around is that police officers have a quota of tickets they need to reach by the end of the month. The money from these tickets and citations mostly goes to the courts. Droge said RCPD’s budget is set at the beginning of the year, so the amount of tickets that cops write has no impact on their salary.
Also, the RCPD’s mission in life is not to give out minor in consumptions and minor in possessions. They have a lot more important things to do than just write tickets.
Bike cops
A common concern among drivers in Manhattan is not noticing when a bike cop tries to pull you over.
“I was always worried that I wouldn’t know when a bike cop was pulling me over,” Allie Love, junior in elementary education, said. “But I liked that they explained that bike cops have a really large siren to pull people over with.”
So the next time you drive, don’t fret about getting not realizing when a bike cop is trying to pull you over. They’ll make sure you know.
Just human
To Droge, police officers are just “regular people with batman belts.”
“The police are law enforcers,” Droge said. “But they’re also approachable. They’re goal is to help.”
Stay informed
RCPD uses the Twitter handle @RileyCountyPD to keep people up-to-date on urgent Manhattan events, as well as to keep us laughing. The tweets range from urgent information about robberies to talking about elastic pants.
“It’s nice to know that they’re not trying to keep things from you, they just want to inform you and keep you safe,” Barkoviak said.
Ultimately, the RCPD wants to keep you safe. So follow @RileyCountyPD, befriend an officer during a Ride Along program and remember that police officers are just ordinary people with an extraordinary job.
