Amy Rock (00:00): Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining us for this episode of the Campus Safety Voices podcast. My name is Amy Rock. I'm Campus Safety’s executive editor, and joining me today is Christopher Shoot, chief of Police at Connecticut State Community College. Chris is also a finalist for the 2025 Campus Safety Director of the Year Awards. It's a program now its 18th year that honors the best executives in hospital, university and school security, law enforcement and or emergency management. And now Chris today will discuss a few of his accomplishments that kind of help highlight why he was chosen as a finalist. And so now your campus, or campuses I should say, are a little unique in that there was a recent merger of 12 separate community colleges and four satellite locations, which is a lot to keep track of. Can you give the listeners just a general overview of the merger, why it took place, just to give kind of some context to our discussion?

Christopher Chute (00:56): Sure. Actually, yeah, it was complicated. I got hired back in January of 2023 before the merger actually took place. At that time, there was 12 legacy separate community colleges that operated independent of each other and maybe four satellites we're well into 20 mid twenties and locations. It seems like we're finding more and more satellite locations everywhere we go. They're standalone locations or they're part of certain technical high schools. They're in shopping plazas. We have a lot of different ones. So our locations are at well into the mid twenties at now and looks like we have 12 main campuses. So when I first started, there was the 12 legacy campuses each having their own identity. Each one of 'em had their own security presence, except one of 'em, 11 out of 12, one had a zero presence for security, but they either had sworn police officers or they had contracted security or what They had these state employed public safety officers or a mixture of them.

It was completely different. Every single campus had their own way of doing things. On top of that, the actual infrastructure of the buildings and the security measures at the facilities levels are still, we're trying to standardize 'em, but they're different. Every single location we have, each campus is run by a separate CEO, so there is a definite different flavor for each one of the campuses. On top of that, each campus was in a different location. We have some that are in some rural communities, some in some suburban communities, and some right in downtown urban areas. So there is a complete different type of personality to every single one of these campuses. And I came in before the merger took place, so I was hired in January of 23. The merger happened July 1st, 2023, and I had a lot of catch up to do when I first started, and most of that had to do with, again, is I recognize some grave issues right from the beginning.

We had some of our sworn police officers did not have their certifications up to date. We had one of our campuses had sworn police officers that were not armed, which is a complete, I don't know how that ever happened, but definitely in contrast to what our state laws are. We had some that had contracted security but had been neglected for a while. We had some campuses that had, again, no type of security or public safety presence whatsoever. So it was a complete catch up from the beginning. And not only was I was dealing with the public safety and the law enforcement end of it, the rest of the school was going through this merger. So the rest of the school, which was much bigger accomplishment than anything we did at the public safety level because that's a huge feat to pull in all the different schools and come up with a single curriculum program and making sure everything is lined up in their structure, which was non-existent for that time.

So coming in at that time, it was very hectic, extremely hectic, and it meant a lot. We were not a police department. We weren't even recognized as a police department with the state of Connecticut. So one of my first steps was to be recognized by the state of Connecticut and our police officers and standards and training counsel had to recognize this as that. I had to make sure that all our officers were trained and our certifications were up to date. Some of them were lacking, some of them didn't. Their backgrounds weren't even complete yet, and they were working on the job for quite some time. We had different firearm systems across the board. Some had one firearm system completely contrasting with a different one in a different location across the state. We had no command structure, zero command structure at that time, which I had to hopefully get together fast.

We didn't have a uniform, we didn't have a badge, we didn't have a name, we didn't have any of that. And starting at that point, it was a big challenge, but the whole reason I took this position is because this is my second career. I'm previously retired from a city in Connecticut as being the police chief there, and I didn't want a second career as retirement job. I wanted something that was a big challenge, and that's just the nature of who I am. And I saw this opportunity and said, oh, this is something, this is something that your once in a lifetime chance to be a part of, and saw that as a challenge and then started hiring. One of the things we had to do immediately was get that command structure in and fill gaps and holes and everything else, and we were off and running.

I started, I tell everybody the story when I first started, I started my job. I didn't have a uniform, I didn't have a badge, I didn't have a firearm, I didn't have a car, I didn't have an office for the first couple of weeks, first couple months. And then slowly acquiring all of that and establishing that and really going around to all the different campuses with the different personalities and the different flavors and everything else, and trying to, number one, get everybody used to that. We have a police department. They weren't used to that. Most of the campuses were not used to that. Getting to know what services we can offer, how we can assist with public safety, how we can take a load off of some of the administrator's plates and say, listen, we can handle this. While hiring, getting the equipment, working through accreditation by the state of Connecticut, we were first getting recognized as a police department, and I had less than a year to hit our first tier of accreditation status, which was an insurmountable beat ahead of us, and it was all overwhelming in the very beginning, but it was an extremely attractive challenge to start.

And then that's what I first saw. That's what I first saw when I first walked in the door.

Amy Rock (07:07): A lot of people probably read it and were like, no, no thanks, and you're like, sure, let's do it.

Christopher Chute (07:13): Yeah, I think it was, and I kind of joke around about that. I think a lot of people, if they started the job and they didn't know how overwhelming it was, I don't know how long they would last, but I just saw I still do every day is a challenge and have a big smile on my face and trying to build something is something that don't get it. You get one chance in probably your lifetime to do something like this and jumped on it.

Amy Rock (07:41): You knew when applying that they were looking to do this merger.

Christopher Chute (07:45): Oh, yeah. I knew the merger was coming. I had no idea how involved it was going to be, and I can honestly state every day I come to work, and I'm very vocal about this every day. The job is bigger than the day before, so I knew it was going to be a challenge. There was no doubt I knew some of the challenges that were ahead of me. It was my first day when I walked in is when I started seeing, I didn't think I had to worry about making sure my officers were certified. I didn't think I had to worry about some of the big holes and gaps of equipment and training and so forth. So that just made it bigger. And then the next day you open, you turn over another rock, you're trying to just explore and you're, oh, this is another problem I need to attack. Oh, this is another one. So every day it's getting bigger. And like I stated earlier, when I first started, it was 12 campuses and a few satellites. Now it seems like we're just keep expanding and our locations are getting bigger. We have more territory to explore, and I kind of joke around with everybody. I says, take out a map of Connecticut, throw a dart anywhere on that map, and we have a location over there, and we're not a big state by any stretch of the imagination. You get across in an hour and a half, maybe two hours from one corner to the next, but it's a lot to reel in and to really grasp when you're looking at the problem.

Amy Rock (09:08): A lot of people, particularly obviously, those who aren't involved in policing at all have this perception, like you said, that campus policing is a retirement alternative with less responsibility, but that often isn't the case. I mean, especially when you're dealing with multiple campuses.

Christopher Chute (09:26): Absolutely. And some of the stuff that I'm dealing with, I never dealt with in the city environment. Some of our rural locations, I'm dealing with issues that I didn't have in the city. And then we have some campuses that are in an urban city environment. It may not be happening on our campus, but right outside their doors we're dealing with some serious violent crime and some other issues, and building those relationships was something that's still ongoing. But luckily I had some relationships coming into this across the state already, but having those relationships with the state police and the local law enforcement we're embedded with is paramount because like you said, it's deceiving to some that, oh, it's a campus environment. Not a lot occurs, but there is a lot that occurs and a lot more than people think. And you're absolutely right when people think of, oh, we're going to go work in a campus for a retirement job. Well, that's one of my hiring points. I don't want, if anybody says that during an interview, they're not going to get hired. I use the term second career, and you're looking for that second career. You got gas in the tank and you really want to give back, and you want to do the right. That's the person that I want hired and working on our team.

Amy Rock (10:40): You obviously dealt with a lot of personalities, and I'm sure opinions, which we could probably talk about for our in and of itself, but what were, and I know you listed off all the things that you've had to do, but what were kind of some of the biggest challenges you faced during this merger regarding safety and security? Maybe it could be convincing people that you need a police department or obviously you could speak to that better than I could, but

Christopher Chute (11:07): Yeah, it's still happening. We've made some accomplishments, but the standardization of everything is definitely the hardest part. And it's not just with public safety and the police for our merger here. This has to do with every aspect of the merger of the colleges. We're stuck and everybody can relate to this. One campus will say, well, this is the way we always did it. And they're stuck in that mindset and instead of saying, well, we're part of a bigger thing now. We're one entity, we're one organization. We need to start streamlining. That's the hardest part. It still is today, and I think that's going to be a problem for a while because these are, some of these legacy colleges we're around forever and not literally, but they've been around for decades and now all of a sudden they're part of something of one organization. It is a difficult situation to manage.

And those opinions can be something simple as, okay, are we going to have a guard at every door making sure that somebody, everybody entering has their ID and they're getting checked in on time. One campus is completely opposed to that. While another campus is, we can't function without that. And trying to make sure we have technology in place or facility structures in place, we have personnel in place. All of those things take time, money, energy, a shift in culture. It takes a lot of addressing the situation holistically from many different points. And we're still in part of that. And currently, I'm in a program right now or in a project right now with our CIO who's been fantastic in such a great support of us of just trying to, again, for the last two and a half years, trying to get our IDs, our ID maker and our ID format and everything else to work amongst every single college and be identical and everything else. And you think about, oh, that's a small feat. It's not when you're dealing with some of the technology is different on every campus. The mindset's different, the culture's different and so forth. So I hope that kind of answers it. I mean, I could go on and on forever of it, but that's just one small aspect of an account,

Amy Rock (13:23): And I mean such a massive undertaking. It's still fresh when you think about it. You're not even two years in, right? July will be two years. So hopefully over the last 21, 22 months or so, people that may have been skeptical of you coming in and making some of these changes are starting to see the benefits and Oh, I get it now. This makes sense.

Christopher Chute (13:44): Absolutely. No, I think we're well received now. I think we worked really hard to build a reputation, and a lot of it was working in partnership, not coming in and saying, Nope, this is the way we're going to do it. And explaining the why behind why we're doing certain things and having certain changes. Being definitely open to working with the different CEOs and administrators on each one of the campuses and slowly making these changes to make them work correctly. I think that's helped us definitely staying in contact as best as I can with 12 separate campuses. It may not be that easy, but I do my best to be always available, always responsive, and I think that's helped a lot. And I have nothing but the most gratitude to my boss and the administration that's backing me up. So I answer to the vice president of finance, the CFO, Carrie Kelly, and I can't thank her enough for the support she's given me, as well as President Duco. Both of 'em have got behind us, and you can't do this without that support and with that, and then building our own name and our own reputation and that we're here. We're here to help. We're not here to cause problems. We're here to take some load off of everybody's plates, assist, get answers quickly, respond quickly, and be present.

Amy Rock (15:04): Absolutely. Now, of these issues that needed to be addressed or changes that were made, what are maybe one or two that you're kind the most proud of? Maybe ones that were the most challenging, that reaped the most benefits?

Christopher Chute (15:17): Yeah, and that's something that I've been thinking about for a while. It's so hard. It's so hard. So I'm going to two-tiered. One thing is very concrete and the other one is more an emotion. The concrete thing is definitely reaching accreditation, and I have all the thanks in the world to Captain Kado, who I hired in October of 2023. So I started in January. It became one institution July 1st. He was hired at the end of October, and we were able to reach our first tier of accreditation within two months because of Captain Cato and hiring him. And I cannot thank him enough. He is a definitely the right guy for the job, without a doubt, the talent, the knowledge, the experience. And he got us to that. And then we actually, in the following year, we just got our tier two and a tier two and three accreditation with the state of Connecticut, which is the highest level and one year ahead of time.

And so much of that has to do with him and his knowledge, experience and everything else, and such a good addition to our group. So if I were to say anything concrete, that's something that is unheard of. We're a police department that did not exist, and within months we became accredited and then hit the top tier within a year and a half. To me, if I was outside looking in, I'd be like, how'd you guys do that? That's just bonkers. And I really got to give him the credit and all of our team for working with him because it's not easy. Anybody knows accreditation, it's not an easy thing to achieve. And there's a lot of work that goes in behind the scenes daily. And getting my team and getting there was fantastic. The second part I would say I was most proud of was early on the first summer that I worked and we finally, I was able to get one firearm system for all of our sworn officers, and we started doing our range eggs, and it was the first time that I saw officers and people from different campuses coming together for a training and watching them.

I did my spiel in the beginning, but I stood back and I just watched them interact and seeing them trade stories about what the different campuses were and how excited they were about how we were making these changes and just listening to those stories. I don't think it's probably one of the more gratifying things I've ever heard, because I was just like a third party observer. I wasn't even engaging in just listening and just hearing Everybody was excited. Everybody was excited about their job. They didn't think I was paying attention, I was listening. They'd liked the changes that were occurring, and that just gives you motivation every day to keep working more and really tackling the big challenges every single day. So that's kind of one's concrete. The other one was more of an emotion, and that one was both of 'em very special.