Anything additional you want to add? (Uh…) Don’t leave your car in the Moody parking lot over the weekend? (Both laugh.) (Well actually…)
(Laughs.) I hope that I can gain the support of the rest of the community to… an endeavor that I have is to professionalize my department and to become a campus police department, that’s something that I’m going to bring up to the Board of Trustees, the Board of Trustees does have the power to petition the circuit court to change this from a security/safety department to a regular police department, of which I would be the chief, and my officers are already well trained… they’re all experienced law enforcement officers. I’d just like people to know that going that way is not a bad thing, it’s really it’s a good thing. We’re not going to operate any differently, we’re not gonna start throwing students in jail, but I feel that as law enforcement officers, we can better protect this community immediately rather than having to wait for the county to come out… we can do some arrests as it is now for breeches of the peace as conservators, but I don’t feel comfortable with it because of the liability and the last thing Hollins would ever need is some kind of a law suit because we arrested somebody for something that we really shouldn’t have, you know, only police officers can arrest for that. And I don’t see taking a chance with somebody’s life by letting something go by, waiting for the county to come out here when we could have done something right then and there to save somebody’s life. I realize that in the past there has always been a lot of negativity towards going to a police department because of the fact of firearms, and I hope that that is beginning to dissipate because the ultimate professionalism of the department would be going to a police department anyway. My officers, like I say, are not going to act any differently, they’re not going to be threatening people or… I’ve always had the idea, I’ve always told officers that I’ve trained in the past that the gun don’t make the man or the woman, the woman or the man makes the gun, it’s yours to control. It’s to be used in the defense of life only, you know, it very restrictive when you’re allowed to use firearms. And we would definitely be able to… all the training that we go through now would actually be accredited by the state and we could work towards state accreditation for this department, which would be a good plus for the students and the parents of the students who are sending their daughters here knowing that there is a highly-trained and professional police force right there on campus to protect their girls. I think it’s, it would be a good thing. I think the timing’s right, I think we’ve finally got the department to a point where everybody feels comfortable with us… everybody feels comfortable with, with me running the department, with my past experience, and I basically hand-picked these officers that I have right now by, because of their expertise, and hoping to be able to professionalize to that point. And I (leaning over into the mic and grinning) I welcome your support.