Officer Mike Bires talks to freshmen Gabriela Manocchio and Caroline Cater about changes on campus.
Photo: Kayla Landrum (photo editor)
A University Resource Officer (URO) is a sworn police officer who is still employed by a police department but whose assigned area is APU. The URO program officially started Aug. 30 and was created out of a concern for student safety.
Azusa Police Deaprtment Chief, Sam Gonzalez, who received his M.A. in leadership and organizational studies from APU in 2004, approached the Department of Campus Safety and President Jon Wallace with the idea of creating a URO position after researching what other schools have done to utilize law enforcement on their own campuses. He found that while School Resource Officers or SROs are popular and utilized in high schools, not many private universities utilized local law enforcement on their own campuses.
“Crime exists here like anywhere else. Although the crime is not extraordinary and there is no great fear or concern, it’s still there,” said Azusa PD Chief Sam Gonzalez. “The majority of crimes on campus are property crimes.”
Gonzalez started searching for the perfect URO candidate within his department by holding interviews with his own officers. He eventually selected Officer Mike Biers to become APU’s first URO.
Now the URO on campus, Bires is still employed by Azusa PD and works closely with Interim Campus Safety Chief Terry Meyer. Part of Bires’ training for the position was to complete a 40-hour SRO training session in Corona, Calif. It was the closest Bires could get to an actual URO training program, which does not exist. The SRO training taught Bires how to communicate with students, how to substitute teach and tactics for responding to critical incidents.
“I need to be able to come down to the students’ level and be able to relate to them,” Bires said. “I can honestly say that after 20 years [of being a police officer] that I really love my job. And one of the reasons is that if I can just make someone’s life just a little bit easier, then I’ve done my job.”
Bires has been on the police force for 20 years
Courtesy: Officer Mike Bires
In addition to his skills as a police officer and his SRO training, Bires is also highly trained in utilizing social media, which Meyer hopes will help with the APU Department of Campus Safety’s online and social media presence.
The Campus Safety Department, Gonzalez and Willie Hamlett, APU associate vice president for student life and chief judicial officer, all have high expectations for the URO program.
“I think it’s a win-win situation. I would not have brought the idea forward if I didn’t think it had some sort of merit to it,” Gonzalez said.
The URO program will run as a pilot for the full academic year before being evaluated and assessed by Gonzalez, Meyer and Hamlett. So far, reactions from faculty, staff and students have been positive. Meyer has received several emails of positive feedback concerning the URO position and Hamlett has received only positive feedback from the administration.
“The administration has been very pleased with the program,” Hamlett said. “I think we’re off to a great start.”
Part of Bires’ job description is to get to know APU intimately in order to maximize student safety and to become part of the community.
“He is an officer who is learning about APU, but there is no substitute for having a person here all the time, always on call,” Hamlett said. “I think as the year progresses, Mike will become increasingly more familiar to and with students and faculty.”
Visit campus safety’s Facebook page here for updates.