At Kansas State University, the on-campus police department plays a large part in promoting safety and efficiency on campus, but the daily lives of police officers can also be unpredictable, especially after dark.
The K-State Police Department is headquartered in 108 Edwards Hall. The department has seven security officers, six communications specialists, two investigative officers, 17 police officers, one emergency management coordinator and seven administrative members.
The campus police department created to assist in promoting and regulating the overall efficiency and safety of the university. Lt. Bradli Millington shared plenty of info about the KSUPD, along with some things that set it apart from the average town’s police force.
Millington said he started out working for the Riley County Police Department in the early 2000s. A job opened up in 2003 for the KSUPD, and Millington decided to take it.
Having that experience of working for a non-collegiate police department, Millington said he had to adjust in some ways to the new setting and the different experiences it would bring to his line of work.
“The college campus is unique because we deal with a broad variety of different nationalities here on campus,” Millington said. “Our population is also pretty transient.”
Related:
A K-State student won a year’s supply of Qdoba, but he’s not keeping it
Millington said the campus police see a wide variety of people every year because the student population changes annually.
K-State, as Millington put it, is “a city inside of a city,” and it is the job of the campus police to enforce not only university policies, but local ordinances and state laws as well. Officers also work closely with the Office of Student Life and the Department of Housing and Dining to ensure students’ safety at K-State.
Along with this, the daily life of a police officer can be quite unpredictable. The campus setting presents plenty of variety in the types of tasks officers are asked to respond to, Millington said.
“You never know quite what you’re going to do every day,” Millington said.
At the end of the day, Millington said the police department is on this campus to keep order and assist those in need at any time of day.
“We’re here to help people,” Millington said. “We have a job to do, but we’re also here to teach and help.”
