OUPD Community Policing BEATS - The Police Notebook

Believing that a law enforcement agency must be a part of, rather than apart from, the community it serves, the OU Police Department has established activity/function-oriented patrol contact areas or "beats" to help promote closer, individual relationships between our Police Officers and University community members. Our "Community-Oriented Policing" (COP) "beat" program involves many activities that enable officers to meet and converse with the community members on their "beats", including foot and bicycle patrols, security and safety presentations to groups, and even routine email communication.

There are two key components to successful community-oriented-policing: community partnership and problem-solving. As the saying goes, safety and security are "everybody's business", and OUPD works with groups across campus to deliver informative presentations, publications and programming to promote crime prevention and safety awareness. We work together with students, faculty, and staff — at all levels of the University community — to cooperatively identify and isolate specific problems/concerns and create/implement partnership-based problem-solving strategies.

The purpose of this webpage is to help you identify the specific "beat officer(s) assigned to your program/function area, and we encourage you to use the clickable links in the beat list (below) to contact your specific "beat" officer by email. (If you have an urgent problem, contact OUPD using the campus emergency number; Dial 911.)

Beat #	Beat Description	Officer(s) Assigned
1	Athletic Department	Off. Chandler E-Mail:
	All facilities All teams All special athletic events

2	Research Campus (South)	Off. Littlejohn, & Off. C. Gibbons E-Mail:
	All Research Campus (South) facilities All Research Campus (North & South) "weather" facilities OU Dept. of Meteorology

3	Housing	Off. Patison, Off Hall, & Off. Sanders E-Mail:
	Residence Halls OU-owned apartments Sooner Hotel and Cottage Suites Recreational Services

4	UOSA	Off. Lewis E-Mail:
	The OU Student Association (student government) All student organizations

5	Physical Plant	Off. Vollmer E-Mail:
	All OUPP facilities & personnel All crafts, trades, & departments

6	Construction Sites	Off. Ezell E-Mail:
	All construction sites (new and renovation) OU A & E Services

7	Parking & Transit	Off. Kerr E-Mail:
	All parking lots All Parking Attendants All special event parking

Beat 8	Academic Colleges & Programs	Off. Kerr E-Mail:
	Architecture Arts & Sciences Business Continuing Education Earth & Energy Education Engineering Fine Arts Geosciences Graduate College Honors College Journalism & Mass Communication International Programs Center Law Liberal Studies Reserve Officers Training Corps University College University Libraries

9	Research Campus (North)	Off. M. Robinson E-Mail:
	All "Max Westheimer Airpark" facilities All Research Campus (North) facilities (except weather-related — see Beat-2)

10	Oklahoma Memorial Union	Off. Patison E-Mail:
	All Union facilities All Union activities

11	"Campus Market" Area	Off. C. Gibbons, Off. Patison, & Off. Lewis E-Mail:
	All area facilities (Commercial properties in the 1300 block of Jenkins and 100 block of E. Lindsey). All area activities

“Community-Oriented Policing” (COP) is an approach to policing wherein the law enforcement agency invites the active participation of representatives of the community being served in the decision-making process that determines the type and scope of services delivered.

Efforts in the 1950s to professionalize law enforcement led to development of a highly-trained police command structure which made all management decisions regarding police services. Belatedly recognized as unintentionally isolating the law enforcement agency from the community it served, this traditional approach was efficient, but often resulted in applying the limited resources available to efforts other than those which the citizens believed to be the most important.

COP seeks to re-connect the law enforcement agency with its constituency, and to ensure that the community's perception of the most serious law enforcement problems is made a component of police planning and operation. COP necessitates regular interaction between police personnel and citizens, and cannot be successful without citizen participants who are willing to present the true thoughts of the community about crime, perpetrators, and police actions in a public forum nor without police willingness to openly discuss, critique and amend their own performance based on this input.

Properly implemented and enthusiastically conducted, Community-Oriented Policing has the potential to strengthen the relationship between the community served and its law enforcement agency while enabling citizens to directly affect the quality of their lives and leaving the police in control of and responsible for their own activities.

If you have general questions concerning OU community-oriented policing, activity/function-based beats, and or campus crime prevention programs, please contact our Crime Prevention Officer by phone (325-2864) or email.