2008 Woodie Awards
SIUE police force began with just one officer watching construction
Steve Britt
Issue date: 8/30/05 Section: Lifestyles
Integrated deep within the history and roots of SIUE are the guardians of safety and justice, keepers of the peace and order.
SIUE police have served and protected the people on campus for more than 40 years.
Carl Foster was hired May 1, 1962, as the first chief security officer for SIUE. He was a police officer but his duties were geared more toward protecting the ongoing construction at the Edwardsville campus.
"We believe that he was hired to watch the construction site here at the main campus, and then a circuit driving to Alton and East St. Louis checking those two buildings that housed the beginnings of SIUE," Police Chief Gina Hays said.
Exactly one year later, another officer was hired and in 1964 two more signed on. When the campus opened in 1965, the department began hiring at a more rapid pace, Hays said.
In 1970, the university took the officers out of uniform and put them in sport coats, took their weapons away and locked them under the seat in the squad cars. According to Hays, this was done because of the student unrest on college campuses and because of Kent State, where students were killed by National Guardsmen during an anti-war confrontation.
"They got the uniforms and ... weapons back in 1974 after two robbery incidents," Hays said. She added that more than $75,000 was stolen during those robberies.
In another police case, a school employee embezzled more than $350,000 from the Bursar's office.
Some 1,500 students were the culprits from October 1993 to September 1995 when a long-distance telephone scam cost SIUE hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"We had the telephone fraud case where students were defrauding the phone system. It went on for several years and cost the university over $250,000," Hays said.
According to then-Chancellor Nancy Belck, however, figures are closer to $1 million, as written in the Feb. 13, 1997, edition of the Alestle. Slightly more than $400,000 was repaid through students either coming forward or being pressured through the withholding of grades or transcripts.
SIUE police have served and protected the people on campus for more than 40 years.
Carl Foster was hired May 1, 1962, as the first chief security officer for SIUE. He was a police officer but his duties were geared more toward protecting the ongoing construction at the Edwardsville campus.
"We believe that he was hired to watch the construction site here at the main campus, and then a circuit driving to Alton and East St. Louis checking those two buildings that housed the beginnings of SIUE," Police Chief Gina Hays said.
Exactly one year later, another officer was hired and in 1964 two more signed on. When the campus opened in 1965, the department began hiring at a more rapid pace, Hays said.
In 1970, the university took the officers out of uniform and put them in sport coats, took their weapons away and locked them under the seat in the squad cars. According to Hays, this was done because of the student unrest on college campuses and because of Kent State, where students were killed by National Guardsmen during an anti-war confrontation.
"They got the uniforms and ... weapons back in 1974 after two robbery incidents," Hays said. She added that more than $75,000 was stolen during those robberies.
In another police case, a school employee embezzled more than $350,000 from the Bursar's office.
Some 1,500 students were the culprits from October 1993 to September 1995 when a long-distance telephone scam cost SIUE hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"We had the telephone fraud case where students were defrauding the phone system. It went on for several years and cost the university over $250,000," Hays said.
According to then-Chancellor Nancy Belck, however, figures are closer to $1 million, as written in the Feb. 13, 1997, edition of the Alestle. Slightly more than $400,000 was repaid through students either coming forward or being pressured through the withholding of grades or transcripts.